Charles Safreth, Interim President of the newborn United Offworld Colonies, watched the agenda items scroll across his handscreen and tried not to let his uneasiness show.<\/p>\n
It was a terrible disappointment to feel this way. During that amazing week in May, when the Colonies declared independence one after another, he\u2019d been celebrating.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t sure when he\u2019d come to see offworld independence as his goal. Two years ago, during the campaign to reorganize the offworld population as a continental directorate, he had no thought of anything but establishing the Colonies\u2019 proper place within<\/em> the Terran Federation. When President Monroe and his Born To The Earth party came to power, and starting trying to force the abandonment of the Colonies, his goal was only to ride out the crisis, keep the Colonies afloat until the next election, when (hopefully) saner heads would prevail. As Monroe\u2019s hostility escalated over the course of those two years, there was no single moment Safreth could point to when he realized a complete break was the only way. He came to it gradually.<\/p>\n But come to it he had. By the time of the abortive military takeover of the Colonies he was pushing hard for Colonial independence. When it came, he\u2019d been nothing but delighted.<\/p>\n Now, he was nothing but worried.<\/p>\n He glanced again at the agenda, then tossed his handscreen to the table and looked around the room. Three people looked back at him. Five more looked out of screens placed on the table: they hadn\u2019t traveled from their home Colonies yet.<\/p>\n Along the walls of the room, a few reporters from the newsnets looked on, amid a scatter of cameras transmitting the meeting to all twenty-four Colonial legislatures and whoever else might want to tune in. Safreth took a deep breath and began.<\/p>\n \u201cWelcome to the first cabinet meeting of the provisional government of the United Offworld Colonies. I believe I can call it that, though technically the cabinet will not take office until August first, as stated in the Transition Plan approved by the Colonial legislatures. Until that date, Vice President Cutter and I are the entirety of the provisional government. I hope none of you expect to take that as a reason to go on vacation for the next ten days: we need to get to work getting our new offworld nation functioning, right now.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to have two big jobs for the duration of this administration. The first is to help shape what the permanent government will look like. With only a few adjustments, the Transition Plan simply adopted the framework for the continental directorate we campaigned for two years ago. I think we all know it\u2019s inadequate for a fully independent national government. The blunt fact is that we don\u2019t know<\/em> what we\u2019ll really require: there\u2019s been no such thing as an independent nation for a hundred years, since the end of the Unification War, and there\u2019s never in history been an offworld<\/em> nation. We\u2019re in new territory, and when the full-term administration, and Colonial Congress, are elected two years from now I want them to inherit a working system.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to introduce the five people I\u2019ve appointed to the cabinet positions called for in the Transitional Plan. None of the five have arrived in Star City yet, but they\u2019re joining us over com. First, Noburo Ishikawa of New Tokyo will serve as Interim Secretary of State. Noburo\u2019s served in that post for his Colonial governor\u2019s office for the last ten years\u2014 and three governors. Second, Tajana Walter of Atrides will be what the Transition Plan calls \u2018Comptroller,\u2019 but since we are now to be a national government, I think Secretary of the Treasury will be the correct term. She is also taking on a job she\u2019s handled at the governor\u2019s level. Working closely with Tajana, Karl Parisi of Marshenko will be Secretary of Economic Development. Karl has headed the combined Offworld Chamber of Commerce for six years. There\u2019s going to be a lot of work to do in his department: our entire economy is based on the freefall industries sending their products down to Earth, and we have to assume that\u2019s at an end. Irving Miller of Promise will be our new Attorney General, after eleven years as a prosecutor in Promise\u2019 criminal justice system. Finally, Martina Blackbourne of Churchill will be Secretary of Offworld Infrastructure, after nine years as her Colony\u2019s Chief Engineer.<\/p>\n \u201cBesides these five, my office has already delivered to the Colonial legislatures a proposal for the creation of two additional cabinet-level departments, and the two individuals I\u2019ve nominated to head those departments are here with me now. Subject to the legislatures\u2019 approval, they\u2019ll round out the provisional cabinet. Aaron Hayes has been the head of Star City lifesystem engineering for fifteen years, and for the last two he has led the cooperative effort of all twenty-four Colonies to keep our lifesystems running in the absence of supplies from Earth. Turning our lifesystems into a permanent, self-contained system is going to be an ongoing project of utmost importance, and rather than have that continue as a subordinate division within Colony Engineering, I propose a new Department of Lifesystem Engineering. This new department will obviously share a great deal of jurisdiction with Martina\u2019s infrastructure department, but I think the importance of the project will justify its elevation to cabinet status.\u201d<\/p>\n Safreth paused, looking around the room. Mostly screens, mostly remote viewers. Vice President Cutter, Aaron Hayes, and his final cabinet appointment were the only ones physically present.<\/p>\n \u201cMy second proposed new department has to do with the second of the two tasks the provisional government will certainly face. Down on Earth, President Monroe and his Born To The Earth party have come to power by blaming us for the ongoing environmental crisis on the planet, and demanding that the Colonies be abandoned. Despite the lack of scientific merit for the claim, his popular support is strong. Desperate populations on Earth are looking for a scapegoat, and according to planetside polls every time Monroe has escalated his attacks on us, his popularity has risen. He\u2019s cut off our lifesystem supplies, embargoed trade and travel, and this past May he ordered Terran military forces to attack our civilian population, seize control of the Colonies, and forcibly deport the survivors back to Earth. We know from the testimony of the Terran commander, Warren Armstrong, that Monroe explicitly intended for there to be violence. Even if our people had submitted willingly, there were covert orders to open fire. Monroe wanted a bloodbath.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot expect him to stop. We only escaped the May attack because Armstrong and other officers refused to open fire on civilians, and stood down. We cannot allow ourselves to be unprepared again.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Transitional Plan makes no provision for a Colonial military. Therefore I have proposed to the Colonial legislatures the creation of a Department of Defense, to include funding for both personnel and equipment necessary to establish a suitable offworld military force. And I have nominated Lauren Cummings, presently chief of police of Galileo, as Secretary of Defense. Both her record and her reputation show she is eminently qualified for the position. She’s already joined me here in Star City, and we’ve been conferring about plans for the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cI urge the Colonial legislatures to approve this proposal in time for Secretary Cummings to take office with the rest of the cabinet. We can\u2019t wait on this until after the Earthers\u2019 next attempt at force.<\/p>\n \u201cNow.\u201d Safreth picked up his handscreen and scrolled to the top of the agenda. \u201cLet\u2019s get to business.\u201d<\/p>\n TO BE CONTINUED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" July 21, 2184 Charles Safreth, Interim President of the newborn United Offworld Colonies, watched the agenda items scroll across his handscreen and tried not to let his uneasiness show. It was a terrible disappointment to feel this way. During that…<\/p>\n