The First Colony Project

[kennethstrickland]

THE FIRST COLONY PROJECT



Fred Romanesky sat in his office and wondered should he send this report to a president who was most likely never to read it or even care he wrote it. It took him two days to decide to make the report available to both the president and the public. This way, he would have done his job. But his conclusion was the only one he could come up with.
Despite everything, America was going to a new colony. Only this time, it was taking only those who chose to go, with or without public knowledge.
Romanesky gathered everything in three ring binders and several hard drives. The hard copy was necessary because that was the way some were willing to deal with the information. There was much including the conclusion that Mark Intergalactic was the main driver behind the colonies. Robert McKeever was the main control behind it all, and he tolerated no fools. If anything, his being a Vicharian Baron gave him a power no one on Earth had. He was able to make the kinds of deals that no one, for now, could touch.
But, this report also proved one thing. There were people willing to go. They would happily give up American citizen ship for a chance to build a new life. Amateurs of all types, singles who'd had enough of trying to run the rat race they felt they could not win, ethnics who were tired of white supremacy shoved in their faces wanted to go. Three ships with a total of twenty-five thousand people each were ready to go. Braanon Mark made a deal with Romanesky: wait until the ships took off before he released the report. That way there would be no government interference with the project.
Romanesky also got one hundred thousand dollars to hold the release of the report until after the launch. He chose to hold the report. He also got stock in the colony. That was potential money he could not pass up.
It was an early Saturday morning when the colony ships left the launch tesseract. They were headed for the last colonies to be established before the public reveal. The decision was made under the radar, and Braanon liked that. The colonies had no fanfare, no objections to be dealt with. If anything, the colony launches were textbook perfect. This time, there would be lists of those going. It was too late to stop them now.
Romanesky did not miss the launch. He had the feed on his computer, something he requested and got. Watching the ships slip out into space from the tesseract was an awesome sight. No drama of a Saturn 5 rocket lifting off, just an elegant display of the leaving.
Romanesky sighed. He still had to get the report out, play the launch and face the onslaught of questions. He would play the recordings and let it fall where it might. But first, Darkise McKeever would make the announcement of the ships leaving, and make available the lists of everything. Romanesky would confirm it.
The president would be furious of course. The accusations would be made. He's gotten the advice to respond with a "yes" to "where you paid to keep quiet?" Be honest, he was told. Yes, they would be angry, but with no federal control, most Americans would not be going to the colony; just the chose few colonists.
That was something at least.

Once the announcements were made, the President was furious. He knew Braanon hated him, but to not be told about so monumental an action was intolerable. So much could have been done with this. So much could have made him, and the country look great. But now the chance was gone.
Or was it?
If he made the announcement, he could say the former President agreed to keep it quiet while the Marks made all the arrangements. The former president would do nothing to deny that he and Braanon came to an agreement, and Braanon would get major brownie points for using willing Americans. Win-win-win. If he did it right, he could point out several west coast universities were sending people to get a look at the Polyversity of Beauville and the sciences department with a possibility of tie ins to each schools' programs, but that was still under discussion. Neither side could afford to say no since colleges and universities wanted to send students with a head start in terms of the academics.
When the possibility of tie-ins with the Polyversity was brought up, jaws dropped since it really wasn't on the radar yet. But now that it had been mentioned, people wanted to know when the programs would commence.
Braanon' jaw dropped and he knew this meant the entire Polyversity programs could be blown wide open. That the possibility of cooperation and coordination with other schools was possible, they might very well have to do it. It was not an idea he liked to jump in on without giving it much thought.
The former President, President Courage, was also flabbergasted. He'd made every overture to get Braanon to open up the colony lists, and now, he was said to have made a deal; to get twenty-five thousand colonists each per the three ships. If they confirmed it, it was a major coup, and it made his successor look foolish. It was also a major coup that the former President, whom the current one despised greatly, stole a major march on him and made him look like a major loser. If they let this stand, that meant that Braanon Mark and President Courage had this working for the longest time.
Braanon stood at the podium and announced, "While we made a supreme effort to keep this quiet, mostly because we believed that it served our purposes better; it is also known that I cannot stomach the current president. President Courage and I believed we needed to have Americans on three of the colonies because if it were done right, we would have the perfect mix of people from this world, ethnically speaking. We knew they would not be perfect, but we were looking for courageous and intelligent people and we found them. Of course, they went with our best wishes and hopes and prayers, equipped in the best ways that we are able. We believed they would all rise to the occasion and prove to be good colonists."
"Mr. Mark, do you think that because of your disdain for this President that it was a ploy to make him look foolish?"
"I don't have to work at that," Braanon replied. "The guy lives in hyperbole. If he can't spin it so that he is the best thing that ever happened to an event, he is not interested."
"Mr. Mark, do you believe that the colonists will be alright?"
"I do because they will choose to be alright. They will choose to be strong. They will choose to explore their new world and create the lives they believe they could not here."
"Mr. Mark! Is there a possibility that we will be able to go to the new colonies?"
"Not yet! They first need to learn to live there. In a lot of ways, it is like learning to live in the Americas at the time of the thirteen colonies. They have to get a feel for the land, and they have to realize that what worked here might not work there."
"Mr. Mark! Does that mean they are abandoned? Or there will never be help from here should they need it?"
"You seem to think you will hop into a spaceship and be there the moment they need help. I'm glad you aren't one of the colonists."
The reporter would not let the next speak. "Do you not think they are not deserted?"
"I'm so very glad you are not a colonist. You seem to look for every dark cloud she can find. The colonists are taught as best we can. The go with what equipment we believe they need. We cannot anticipate every need, or every danger. They have been equipped as best possible. Allow them to do their best. If that is not good enough for you, don't sign up to be a colonist. Stay home and suck your thumb."
The reporter sat down.
Another stood. "Mr. Mark, when will be able to contact them?"
"Five to ten years from when they have settled there," Braanon said. "No matter what, it will take time to get messages there and back even with the new communication satellites we will deploy. Considering the distances, if we find anything in five years, we will have done it correctly."
"One more thing Mr. Mark, the five-year ban on contact, who is it for, the colonists or us?"
"Both. The last thing the colonists need is to have Earth acting like a mother who refuses to believe her children can't do without her. I would think you would be proud because it meant the child knew enough to go out there on its own. I think a hovering parent, trying to prevent any harm from befalling their children type, does themselves and the child a disservice."
"Mr. Mark, will The Rangers be patrolling the new colonies?"
Braanon looked over at Valdochan, who stepped to the microphone and said, "That has not been decided on since that means we will have to post Rangers there, and that had not been budgeted. However, our general services will be stopping by the colonies to see what is happening, and they can call us if they need help."
"Commander, Commander, is that standard operating procedure?"
"Yes," answered Valdochan.
The reporters murmured. It might mean the colonies were not completely alone.
"Commander, does this mean that there will be a special unit simply to do colony patrol?"
"That has not been decided on yet. If it happens then Earth, specifically America, has to decide if they want to front the money. Remember, if you want that, you have to pay to play." Valdochan sat down. The reporters, especially the one that didn't like the answers, murmured quietly.
Braanon knew the answers were unsatisfactory. That was par for the course. He also knew this congress and this president would never step up. What reasons they had, it, none of it, was for their glory.
Darkise stepped to the podium and thanked the reporters for coming.
President Courage echoed the responses from Beauville when he was questioned while on vacation having allowed the reporters to catch up with him in a Caribbean setting. He was not going to pass on this opportunity to make his successor look bad. Since he was no longer in office, he didn't have to be nice. He smiled as he thought what the man would say.
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A few days later Braanon and President Courage were sitting in his office longue enjoying drinks and discussing the colony situation.
"You know, we never did talk about the colony situation, right?" Courage said as his whiskey sour was set before him.
Braanon took a classic martini. "No, we did not. But the fallout will be something he cannot erase or reverse. He's stuck with it as it stands, and I can't be happier." He took a sip from his glass. "If you want, I have papers, dated, that spells out the agreement. I can have those released to the public. Let him try to prove it wrong."
"You want to intensify the fraud? If it ever comes out..." Courage said.
"So who will tell? This says that we have a preliminary agreement in principle, and the set up can begin immediately. It never says I would wait for the next president, just that it would be done. Not when."
Courage nearly dropped his drink laughing. “This means it would be in progress all this time and was nearly finished! He can't say a thing except tweet like the fool he is!"
Braanon laughed as well. "There is also a second set of papers that points out I gave a hundred thousand dollars to the UNCF in your name and will set up a scholarship fund for the sciences. It hasn't been finalized yet and will be backdated to the signing of the agreement once the ship launched. There has to be a massive screw you in all of this, and this is it."
Courage looked at him. "Braanon, that is totally evil."
Braanon smiled. "I know. But I got to have some fun."
Courage nearly snorted out his drink. Calming down, he asked, "what about the other countries? Don't they have a stake in this?"
"Yeah, they are getting a world we just had certified for colonization. Terms are the same. When they start producing, they pay one hundred million per year for thirty years. I don't do this out of the goodness on my heart."
Courage looked at him. "That's a lot."
"You'd be surprised. Planetary defense goes along with that. There's a lot mixed up in it, and there are people unwilling to do their part. That's why the rest of the world has a greater hand in everything on their colony. They are willing to put up or shut up. I will not wait for the US to grow up. That's why I will not allow this president and this congress any part in it. I will not let some idiots get in the way."
"That explains it. You want forward progress. Congress screwed with me and blocked this, which needed the country behind it. You had the people. This was something the current president and his supporters were going to miss out on. They weren't worthy of it."
"He's like a lot of people who take advantage of everything but give nothing." Braanon said, his mood darkening. "He's not taking advantage of me. He can tweet till the cows come home, but he gets nothing."
Courage nodded his head. "I'll sign the papers before I leave. Just make sure you age them right. After all the grief he gave me over that damned birth certificate and that non-apology at that damned hotel of his, he deserves this. I want to see how many shades of orange he can go under that badly applied bronzer of his."
Braanon smiled.

[jayphailey]

Okay! This one's the same as CH 1