Read Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) for Free Online Page A
Authors: S. H. Jucha
ramifications of what he is attempting to accomplish. But I do know my brother is one of the most honest people I know. You can believe what he says has happened and what he intends to do about it. I guess the important question for New Terra is: Are we going to help him and the endangered Méridiens despite the President’s order?” She paused and her serious and thoughtful expression morphed into a sweet, teenager’s smile. “Thank you for joining me this morning.”
Charlotte signaled the tech to close the show and return to their regular programming. She sat back in her chair and slapped her hulking tech on the shoulder, who grinned back at her. It was bonus time for both of them.
* * *
Maria Gonzalez had received notice of Christie’s upcoming broadcast from Julien. She linked her reader to the show along with a few hundred key people she had notified, who in turn had each notified their compatriots, friends, and family. Maria’s personal network was the reason 19,000 people were prepared to view the show before it had even been announced.
After watching the interview, Maria leaned back in her chair. Her home, located on the building’s top floor, allowed her a view of Government House from her window. Slow anger burned deep inside her. Maria felt convinced that President McMorris had been murdered, and somehow the reptile, Downing, had been involved. But days after Downing’s approval by the Assembly, she had been removed from her position and frozen out of her TSF assets, losing her opportunity to investigate. A Downing stooge now sat in her TSF chair.
As she considered Christie’s morning chat, a smile replaced her frown. She had underestimated Alex. Somewhere along the way, the young Captain had developed political skills. Alex was no longer the loner, plying the ice fields. He had become a force of change. Maria recalled Alex’s words which were, “Why, you, General. You’re the next President pro tem, if I have anything to say about it.” At the time, she had thought Alex’s declaration pompous, his title going to his head. But this maneuver, appealing to the populace through a chat with his fourteen-year-old sister, had been delivered as a master stroke. In the next few hours, Maria knew much of the populace would have viewed the show. Now she began giving serious consideration to Alex’s words. Maria didn’t covet the presidency, but she would love to see Clayton Downing and his sycophants out on their collective ears.
* * *
Clayton had been forewarned of the upcoming show by an associate who was being paid to monitor Maria Gonzalez’s friends. He had then notified several trustworthy Ministers and several hundred industry leaders of the program, and finally had sat in his office to watch.
More than one person in Clayton’s inner circle wanted the program shut down, but more temperate heads had prevailed. Media stations were a protected industry on New Terra, and woe unto any government entity that tried to say otherwise. The cooler heads made the point that shutting down the station would start an outcry they couldn’t manage.
Clayton’s inner circle, though, was striving to get him elected as President by popular vote so they could begin to consolidate their power and create what they had always wanted—a government controlled by the elite … the deserving.
-5-
Eric Stroheim and Captain Reinhold worked diligently with Z, the Unsere Menschen ’s SADE, to update their ship’s status. So much work had been done and undone in the days before the ship’s launch with no time to correct Z’s records, and since the launch, work had continued to shore up the overtaxed environmental systems. It took several hundred workers thirty-two work hours to communicate the status of all systems and construction. Afterward it took Z only moments to compare the city-ship’s design plans with the crews’ updates to catalog the work that still needed to be accomplished.
Charlotte signaled the tech to close the show and return to their regular programming. She sat back in her chair and slapped her hulking tech on the shoulder, who grinned back at her. It was bonus time for both of them.
* * *
Maria Gonzalez had received notice of Christie’s upcoming broadcast from Julien. She linked her reader to the show along with a few hundred key people she had notified, who in turn had each notified their compatriots, friends, and family. Maria’s personal network was the reason 19,000 people were prepared to view the show before it had even been announced.
After watching the interview, Maria leaned back in her chair. Her home, located on the building’s top floor, allowed her a view of Government House from her window. Slow anger burned deep inside her. Maria felt convinced that President McMorris had been murdered, and somehow the reptile, Downing, had been involved. But days after Downing’s approval by the Assembly, she had been removed from her position and frozen out of her TSF assets, losing her opportunity to investigate. A Downing stooge now sat in her TSF chair.
As she considered Christie’s morning chat, a smile replaced her frown. She had underestimated Alex. Somewhere along the way, the young Captain had developed political skills. Alex was no longer the loner, plying the ice fields. He had become a force of change. Maria recalled Alex’s words which were, “Why, you, General. You’re the next President pro tem, if I have anything to say about it.” At the time, she had thought Alex’s declaration pompous, his title going to his head. But this maneuver, appealing to the populace through a chat with his fourteen-year-old sister, had been delivered as a master stroke. In the next few hours, Maria knew much of the populace would have viewed the show. Now she began giving serious consideration to Alex’s words. Maria didn’t covet the presidency, but she would love to see Clayton Downing and his sycophants out on their collective ears.
* * *
Clayton had been forewarned of the upcoming show by an associate who was being paid to monitor Maria Gonzalez’s friends. He had then notified several trustworthy Ministers and several hundred industry leaders of the program, and finally had sat in his office to watch.
More than one person in Clayton’s inner circle wanted the program shut down, but more temperate heads had prevailed. Media stations were a protected industry on New Terra, and woe unto any government entity that tried to say otherwise. The cooler heads made the point that shutting down the station would start an outcry they couldn’t manage.
Clayton’s inner circle, though, was striving to get him elected as President by popular vote so they could begin to consolidate their power and create what they had always wanted—a government controlled by the elite … the deserving.
-5-
Eric Stroheim and Captain Reinhold worked diligently with Z, the Unsere Menschen ’s SADE, to update their ship’s status. So much work had been done and undone in the days before the ship’s launch with no time to correct Z’s records, and since the launch, work had continued to shore up the overtaxed environmental systems. It took several hundred workers thirty-two work hours to communicate the status of all systems and construction. Afterward it took Z only moments to compare the city-ship’s design plans with the crews’ updates to catalog the work that still needed to be accomplished.
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