Chapter 6
Video Zombi
"Rima's voice sounded exactly like an arrival announcement in a transportation hub, "We have a connection, Gentlemen."
The Admiral looked at two large video monitors, he saw himself on a monitor above the door, offset to the side. The second monitor overlaid the world map, President Bushleeg's head and shoulders was backed by a two meter fan spray of Use flags. The president and flags were posed in front of a standard electric blue stage background.
The President was irked by rebel audacity. Though he didn't speak immediately, his posture and facial expression was clearly good ol' boy with an impatient wrinkled brow. President Bushleeg oozed an image of superiority and dominance. He confidently believed his charisma and corporate quality TV stage set blue would be effective at controlling the debate.
"We pioneers are very pleased by the news we have to share," opened the Admiral, with a relaxed smile, he was feeling very spiffy wearing his new Melodian clothes.
"Oh? Well, I suppose I should hear something of your news," President Bushleeg responded, glancing at a note sliding toward him across the waxed and polished folding table, the grey metal frame was also highly polished.
The note contained an update on HUNTA forces and Star Wars readiness, world-wide. Star Wars had been a respected antimissile money trough for over two hundred high-budget years; and it was up and running. HUNTA was bogged down and really did need more helicopters for what had turned into a pitched battle with the braves and their exploding bolo slingers.
President Bushleeg glanced to his various military force chiefs, who were lined up at their individual computer stations. He signaled for more helicopters and received a nod of readiness down the line. The military leaders sat at a long, cafeteria-style table. Their folding table was bordered by sparsely filled grey metal bookcases. President Bushleeg rather liked the austere look of his hastily set-up situation control center. He proudly felt his superb management skills had once again been prominent during the smooth furniture replacement and remodeling necessitated by the strange disappearance of his original computer station. Nonetheless, he was glad the video conference screen only showed his upper body and the flags splayed like a fan behind him.
The Admiral positioned himself so that the woven bamboo of the new building was his background, he was proud of the actual physical work he had done, and that it had turned out so beautiful. The shimmering dome surface appeared on the monitor screens as slight interference, perhaps from sun spots.
"We have received reinforcements from Planet Pacifica," the Admiral said, with a jubilant tone of voice.
"That's not exactly news to us," the President responded icily. "We count your space fleet at forty-four. One alien ship crashed and sunk just offshore from your, er... rebel island hideout."
"Delfinian spaceships don't crash quite like that, Mr. President. Delfinians are Ocean People. Their ships are full of water, with breathing air above. Delfinian spaceships fly in Earth's gravity field whether in nearby space, air, or underwater. The ship you have lost on your sensors is currently submerged and patrolling the waters around Earth Base One."
A flicker of disappointment crossed President Bushleeg's face. He scowled in the direction of the Naval Force Chief, who rose and went to give search and destroy orders to antisubmarine specialists which were already headed for Rebel Island. "You certainly have amassed an aggressive space force at our peaceful doorstep," President Bushleeg said, accusingly, a well-practiced petulant whine adorned his equally well-practiced tone of righteous indignation.
"You attacked me, at Spaceport Pacifica," the Admiral said in measured tones. "I was standing on the runway with my granddaughter and pilot, weaponless. We are no longer surprised and alone." He turned to Rose and Rima and then looked up at the holographic spaceship floating inside the dome. "Please show President Bushleeg our conference room ceiling."
The monitor view instantly snapped from Admiral Castro with a wicker backdrop showing through shimmering dome to a delfinian battle platform, floating level, as if inside the new building; the spaceship was a little larger and just under the dome opening through the roof.
"That ship had to move away for its own safety," President Bushleeg sneered to make a poker face and mask his dismay. "Our factories have already produced far more than was used to push your creepy alien friends back from our peace loving homeland."
"Please show the gentleman his peace loving homeland's war map," the Admiral asked Rose and Rima, waving one arm with a flourish and bowing theatrically, though still off camera. Rose and Rima, operating the communication equipment, were the first to realize Admiral Castro was winging it as an impromptu master of ceremonies on his own video show.
Rose worked through a few quick computer steps and moved their monitor above the door next to the delfinian ship picture above the door. One more keystroke and the monitor showed the earth map. "Waláh," she said quietly.
"Do you think this is what Grandfather did for Nation Pacifica before he retired?" Rima asked Rose in a whisper.
"Now. Please enlarge our area and show the submerged delfinian spacecraft," said the Admiral.
Rose put Captain Strong's location on the screen and nodded a yes to Rima's question as the Admiral was speaking. They watched him walk out the door, where he asked someone from the group to fetch him a hammer.
The Admiral turned back quick as a wink, walked to the wall map, and pointed to an amber light marking the delfinian spaceship location. He then stood at ease for a moment with the wall map behind him, smiling at himself on the monitor screen above the door.
"That's impossible," President Bushleeg exclaimed. "My staff says that position is over a hundred miles from your rebel island hideout. My Navy Chief says no submarine can go that fast."
"Well, you'll just have to take my word for it then," Inocente chuckled, reaching for the hammer Will brought him. "If you really believe a delfinian spaceship should be as slow as your submarines, this will probably look bogus to you, too. Watch carefully. Is it a trick?"
He then walked to the map edge. Bending and turning slightly, he tapped the glistening dome wall with the hammer. The hammer rang on impact, there was no sound from the dome wall: no vibration, no sound. the Admiral returned to the map center and again hit it with the hammer, the finale being quite a sharp blow. "Two hundred kilometers," he said, standing upright, that's how far the delfinian ship has gone." He smiled for the USE presidential monitor and walked off camera.
President Bushleeg's video conference picture still only showed his head and shoulders. He was relying on his TV political persona to impress and hopefully squelch pioneer spirit. It wasn't working.
"I would like to formally introduce you to two very fine people, Mr. President. You have met them briefly, I'm sure you will remember Erica Brave Moon and Pioneer Earth Fleet Commander, Eddy McGregor."
Erica and Eddy were outside watching through the dome from, off camera, next to the computer station side of the wall map. They walked to about the center of the map when the Admiral beckoned them enter; then they turned to the swirling fog, held hands, and stepped through the map, into the dome.
The video conference monitor clearly showed a lingering sheet of rainbow fog which audibly crackled as it slowly faded from their bodies. Neither Eddy nor Erica had noticed the sound before but they had no time to talk about it.
Rima held up her hand for Eddy and Erica to stop directly in front of the map, she wanted them to use it for their video backdrop. They looked at the monitors directly across the dome and above the door. President Bushleeg was on the left monitor, with the flag backdrop, they were on the right monitor with the map as their background.
"We didn't intend to take your stuff," Erica said, thinking she might as well break the silence. She flashed a quick grin to The President.
"What do you mean? Er... Moon Beam. What stuff?"
"This is your world map from your computer station and library."
"What?"
"We left your, um... war station room, in a big hurry. People were shooting guns." She pointed to the computer station and library, "Those came with us."
Rima switched the video conference camera to Rose and herself, working at the presidential command computer station.
The President was astonished, dismayed to speechless. Inocente seized the moment and joined Erica and Eddy on camera, he hadn't yet set down the hammer.
Rima switched the camera so President Bushleeg's monitors showed three pioneers dressed in clothes that glowed like dawn, they stood in front of the very beautiful wall map, which was a real-time picture of Earth, something President Bushleeg never dreamed of having.
Admiral Castro reached to Eddy's shirt and folded the pliable material between his fingers. He moved to the side and tapped Eddy's stomach with the hammer, as he had done previously with the dome wall. He stopped to look at Eddy's expression.
"I didn't feel it," said Eddy, he had been planning a similar experiment himself.
The Admiral smacked the hammer against Eddy several times, each blow with more force than the last. Eddy shrugged and shook his head.
I didn't feel it," he said, slightly unnerved by watching someone slamming him in the stomach with a hammer. He turned and pinched Erica, "Could you feel that?" He asked.
"Yes, but that was a different kind of pinch," she said, eyes twinkling. "That was a tickle-pinch, my clothes don't block those."
They laughed together before turning to the Admiral, who had walked off camera and was sitting on the desk edge at Rose and Rima's work area. He waved them on, "I'm sure there is more you would like to tell President Bushleeg about your adventures at the USE Capitol."
Eddy turned back to President Bushleeg's head and shoulders on the monitor screen above the door, the president was grumbling about how The United States of Earth abbreviation was pronounced U.S.E. and definitely was not pronounced 'use'. "Nobody but nobody says use," he concluded with a disapproving sneer.
"We started our tour of USE headquarters in your TV room, with you. We watched you watching the show," Eddy told him.
"What? I didn't see you." The President responded, frowning. "That's my quality quiet time. No one is allowed to disturb me in my TV viewing studio. How did you get in there?"
"We walked through the wall just like you saw us do when we walked through the wall map."
"I figured that was just another trick in the Admiral's little show."
"Nope," said Eddy, pointing to the metal discs on his chest. "These discs are modern versions of failed melodian experiments to travel in conscious timespace, the original versions probably predate our discovery of steam-power and electricity."
"Why are you wasting my time telling me all this claptrap?" President Bushleeg asked, glancing at a wall clock, hoping the allotted time slot for what he considered an idiotic video conference was about at an end.
"This bandolier is a melodian war sash," Eddy continued, proudly. "Star Song was wearing it when you saw us in your war room."
"Are you referring to that big hairy alien?" President Bushleeg grumbled. "What's your point? I'm a busy man," he said irritably, again glancing at the clock.
"Star Song used one of these discs to speed up time for us. We watched your show in slow motion."
"And?"
"We saw that you are being controlled by subliminal advertising written into the moving picture frames. We saw you being turned into a TV zombi."
"What? You're crazy. I'm the President. I'm the one in control around here, everybody knows that." President Bushleeg was was so angry he was beginning to spit; little patches of foam had gathered around the corners of his mouth. His eyes lost their well practiced humor crinkles and narrowed to glinting slits.
The president's camera angle suddenly widened to include Chairman Homespun and Vice President Chewey. They were standing on either side of the the president, just outside the flag spray view, still with a standard glowing blue background.
"You are wasting President Bushleeg's valuable time with absolute lunacy, young man," Vice President Chewey stated in a scowling, growling monotone.
"Such ramblings are inappropriate to the dignity of the Presidential Office," Chairman Homespun added with a superior person's look.
Then Brave Moon Spoke to President Bushleeg, "We heard you say the same words we read in the mind control film. We also saw some advertisements giving you investment advice. Have you by any chance recently bought risky gold mining stocks?"
President Bushleeg was shocked. How could she know about his foolish investments? He was so embarrassed and disgusted with those investments that he had told no one about his stupid gold mining stocks.
Chewey and Homespun tried to move the president off camera, each taking an arm. That was a mistake.
President Bushleeg is a big man, and he was suddenly way more than angry, he was awash with personal embarrassment. Bushleeg became a brute when Chewey and Homespun tried to move him from the camera a second time. He broke free of their grasping hands with a quick circular swing of his arms, grabbing them both by the shoulder, one in each hand.
"Arrest these men," he bellowed, turning back to the camera, now holding Vice President Chewey and Chairman Homespun and shaking them like they weighed nothing.
"And what were those supposed words you read and then heard me say?" He asked Erica Brave Moon.
"NO," shouted both Chairman Homespun and Vice President Chewey together.
"Cetacean terrorists bamboozled the braves," Erica answered, her voice mixed in with their shouted protest.
Erica's words had an immediate impact which surprised everyone but Vice President Chewey and Chairman Homespun. She had no way to know beforehand that these were the key mind control words the chairman and vice president had chosen, thinking nobody but them would ever say them.
President Bushleeg's eyes glazed. The spit bubbles in the corners of his mouth frothed until they became fountains of foam, he began drooling. Then he began shouting, still holding and shaking Chairman Homespun and Vice President Chewey, shaking them like dead rats. "Blast those rebel pioneers out of earth orbit," he bellowed insanely. "Then nuke every last cetacean terrorist and all their bamboozled braves."
The general in charge of star wars missile defenses was more than willing to follow at least the first part of the presidential order. She saluted the president and pushed a button on a remote controller sitting on the table in front of her.
Everyone outside the dome at Earth Base One rushed back in. They watched the wall map in surprised shock. Hundreds of missiles swarmed upward from USE launch sites all over the world. The missiles locked onto individual pioneer spacecraft. Flight paths began to converge.
Pandemonium broke loose on President Bushleeg's video conference monitor, many things began happening at once. Chairman Homespun and Vice President Chewey were handcuffed by military police and led away. Medical personnel rushed to President Bushleeg's side and injected him with a fast acting sedative, they carried him away unconscious, on a stretcher. After that, only the backdrop flag was in sight, though a hubbub of many raised voices could be heard off camera.
"Please connect our radio with Captain Pearl," the Admiral requested of Rose and Rima.
Captain Pearl appeared almost instantly on a smaller monitor, above the bookshelf. "Our sensors indicate attacking missiles will be in range of pioneer defensive weapons in eight minutes," said the captain.
"Please beam your sensor data to Earth Base One," the Admiral requested calmly.
The floor to ceiling wall map winked to a view of Earth in space, as seen from the Delfinian Battle Platform, halfway to the moon. A ring of small lights indicated individual pioneer spacecraft patrolling in orbit. Clouds of smaller lights no bigger than a grain of sand marked patterns of missiles attacking pioneer ships.
"This is Walker speaking," his voice proclaimed his presence over the radio. "My crew had logic which convinced me I should be here. Now hear this: I want a controlled retreat. All ships; retreat. Get as many of those missiles as you can. Repeat: Controlled retreat."
"That's just what I was about to say," the Admiral softly growled in Eddy's direction, with a wink. "Welcome to the fray, Commander. You did the right thing. I'm glad you are here."
"That's what I was going to say, too," Eddy said.
"You are glad Walker is here?" the Admiral asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.
"No, I was going to say retreat," Eddy responded. Then, realizing what he'd just said, "Well, er, Yes... I'm actually very glad Walker is here."
"I know what you are feeling, Eddy," the Admiral said. "There's a giant battle going on and we're here on the ground. One feels left out and, meanwhile, the adrenaline is pumping. It's an odd feeling, but our job is here, for a little longer."
"Yes, Sir," Eddy quietly agreed.
Captain Pearl was calling for their attention. "Each pioneer ship is being attacked by a different number of missiles. The lowest attack number is fifty, and the highest is one hundred and fifty. They are testing fleet strength."
"Pioneer cruisers are strong," Will said, from near the dome door, "but they can't withstand an atomic bomb going off too close."
"Concentrate on the missiles that will stay in orbit around the sun," said Commander Walker, over the radio. "We can't let Earth's orbit become littered with unexploded atomic bombs."
"That's our boy," Will said with a beaming smile, putting his arm around Leslie's shoulders and giving her a squeeze; they were both very proud of their eldest son, Walker.
The pioneer ships moved outward from the planet with the atomic bomb missiles in pursuit, some exploded nearby. Defensive joy beams flashed from ships to missiles, turning the ones they hit into harmless clouds of dust. USE missiles are far slower and less maneuverable than the pioneer ships, yet the sheer number of them drove the pioneers further and further back.
When the first missiles began running out of fuel, Walker sent small groups of three light cruisers into defensive positions over China, Pacifica, and Earth Base One. Then the battle above grew more intense as new waves of missiles rose to blast the pioneer ships. The squadron over Nation Pacifica was confronted with such a blizzard of missiles it was forced to retreat, Walker reinforced that position with a heavy cruiser and its six fighters. Almost half the remaining fleet of thirty-two was devoted to tracking down and destroying unexploded missiles that had run out of fuel and were orbiting the sun rather than plunging toward obliteration in solar fire.
Only seventeen pioneer cruisers and their fighters remained available for actual patrol, and they were met with a new barrage of USE missiles when they attempted to move into a closer orbit.
"They are relying on us to clean up their nuclear waste," Walker said over the radio. "I'd like six volunteer fighters to go down there and punch a hole in the capitol roof," he snorted with disgust.
All fighter pilots immediately volunteered and Walker sent the closest six spiraling down to warn those in the USE command center they were safe only because he, Fleet Commander Walker Berrigan, chose not to attack them and risk even one civilian casualty.
The fighters entered the atmosphere and leveled out of Earth's gravity sink at one hundred meters above the Atlantic. They were a screaming blur headed straight for the USE capitol. Their passage was so swift that few on the ground had time to react and seek cover. The lead fighter flying very low, fired its joy beam at a slightly upward angle. It left a smoking three meter wide hole through the capitol roof while endangering no one on the ground. The fighters then turned straight up. All six climbed back out of the atmosphere leaving their thunderous passage echoing in the streets and alleys of the city now far below. USE defenses hadn't seen them coming but a pack of missiles was right behind them leaving.
The Admiral kept track of the raging battle in space with keen attention to detail. He watched pioneer ships neatly eliminate the missiles pursuing the fighters rising out of the atmosphere, he also noted that fighters had begun refueling at the delfinian spaceship. "The battle has reached a point of stasis," he mused aloud, glancing to a somber woman dressed in a conservative business suit who stepped into view in front of the flag on the presidential video conference monitor, still above the dome exit.
She stood before the USE flag for a moment, listening to off-camera voices. Then she turned her full attention to the video conference camera.
"You have exposed an attempted plot to take over our government. Ironically, we are indebted to you for helping us avoid a disaster," she said, with expression and voice as grim as Vice President Chewey.
"Be that as it may," she continued. Our military chiefs have full authority to defend The United States of Earth and to stay on the hunt for rebel spaceships."
"To whom are we speaking?" asked Admiral Castro, personably.
"I am Candy Bestbahr, Leader of the Representative's Cottage, Acting President of The United States of Earth," she answered with an unwavering stare.
"You rebels are attempting to destroy democracy and freedom. We know you hate our way of life and will stop at nothing to disrupt our upcoming presidential election and continued economic growth."
"You all say the same thing," Inocente observed. "How can we be sure you are not another TV zombi? How many hours a day do you spend in front of your television? Perhaps your surgically implanted security chip is an antennae for personalized mind control messages sent directly to your home TV?" He spoke with the soothing voice of a parent who has rushed to comfort a child awakened by a nightmare.
"Try not to be afraid of the TV fear images implanted in your head. Please, it's important. Pioneers and Delfinians are here to help you. We are here to help bring peaceful balance between Mother Earth and Her Humans."
President Bestbahr was stunned. Was the Admiral simply trying to frighten her? Could her implanted security chip also be a specialized TV antennae? Was her mind really her own? How could she be sure? She was speechless, her mind lost in racing thought.
"I have no choice but to assume you are also a TV zombi," said the Admiral. "Nothing else can explain so many atomic bombs being lobbed about. Please be calm. Try not to be afraid. Pioneers guard against rattlesnakes but do not attack them."
The Admiral turned to Rose and Rima, "Please contact Fleet Commander Walker, tell him to land at Earth Base One, now."
Again he spoke to President Candy Bestbahr. "I must close off our video conference now," he said, gently. "It's busy around here. I need to concentrate on your country's, er... peaceful attacks."