Manifestations (24 page)

There was a stir in the council, each member thrusting questions forward simultaneously. Colonel Pinter privately messaged Ryu.

Pinter: Do you mind if I step in? I think I speak Zim’s Language.

Prime: Proceed. I don’t want this meeting to end without a resolution.

Pinter: Understood.

The Colonel took a step forward, away from Ryu to stand before the General.

‘General Zim, what would such a strike look like?’

‘With the council’s permission, I will lead us through the staging rooms.’ Everyone assented and the room began reconstructing around them. The seats and walls disappeared and the avatars dropped to a common floor so Zim could guide them through a composite of all the operator rooms involved in the proposed offensive.

For security there was no physical building. The Servicemen working on the front were scattered over a hundred highly classified locations around the WU; only their avatars were included in the virtual construction.

‘Prime, esteemed council, welcome to my command centre.’ Their avatars transitioned to a dark chamber with graphic overlays of Atlantic. Maps of the city and its territories were encircled by two dotted lines that represented the blockade.

‘Before we begin any offensive manoeuvres we will fortify the barricade with a third ring of air, ground, naval and subspace auto-targeters. This shield will cover a wider area to create a perimeter between the first, second and third lines.’ A thick band traced the line of the existing perimeter.

‘Will Services have firing approval?’ Representative Betts asked.

‘For foolproof containment we would recommend automation. It will decrease the response time into seconds.’

‘And once your defences are in order, what will you do then?’ Ryu Shima moved the conversation along and threw the Representative a glance. He was wondering what her aim was.
What is the old biddy up to now?

‘After ensuring our defences, we will commence a public campaign to the people of Atlantic, stating that we intend to re-establish an embassy in the city.’

‘And how will you communicate that to them?’ asked another speaker.

‘Through all channels. We know they are using radio and have subnet pockets in the major areas. We will also airdrop squadrons of dragonflies and paper messages.’

‘And what will that message be?’ Betts asked. She seemed satisfied with the tired sighs of the military men in the room.
Yes, hers is the way of the question now,
the Prime recognised her tactic and watched. By positing questions she was trying to get others to do the work for her. Presuming their answers would trip them up.

‘The wording is being crafted, but the essential points will be that the World Union will be interceding in the criminal takeover of the territory by hostile forces.’

‘You are referring to the psis?’

‘The group that has declared open rebellion on the World Union and the Will of the people.’

‘We have Citizens trapped in the zone. Will you be helping them return to their homes?’ Demos asked. He only ever cared about his own people, which was admirable in a way, and kept his position safe. More people were beginning to recognise how protective he was of his constituents and had petitioned to join his floating cities. Demos was accommodating them with new liners and extended visits.

‘Of course,’ the General answered. ‘Once identity is confirmed, all Citizens will be provided courtesy evacuation.’

‘And what about the people of the Cape?’ Betts asked. Ryu could tell she was ramping up to her oratory voice. She knew just how to speak to make her every question seem to point at a moral outrage. ‘Will Citizenship be available to all who ask for it?’

General Zim looked to the Prime for an answer. Ryu had been watching the discussion rather than listening to it and he answered without thinking. ‘It is a founding principle.’

The council was silent. He had inadvertently conceded ground to Betts.

‘And what will you do when the psis resist you?’ asked Nigel Westgate. The Anti-Psi League had just managed to creep him to the lowest rung of the council.

‘We will meet force with force,’ Zim answered.

‘Could you show us what that would look like?’ Colonel Pinter asked, echoing his question from before.

The General swiped the wall-screens clear and started revealing the strategy-matrix he had built. As each element appeared it was nested into any one of a timeline, a list of objectives and a map location. Contingencies branched from every action, and led to their own branches. Zim zoomed and highlighted the major points.

‘Twenty-four hours after we have broadcast our message we will form a loop in the barricade lines here, which will extend into Atlantic to here.’ The blue line around the Cape formed a bubble that moved into the city and covered a significant area of the central coast. ‘We will use natural defences as our border posts, as well as canals, drains and tributaries. All soft foundations between the stations will be detonated and dropped to sublevel to form an air moat. We will then land Seabase 3 here.’

On the map a yellow square appeared. The scale brought the two-kilometre barge in to land at a cargo dock, an operation that would take five days to complete from the base’s current position.

‘The Seabase is protected by distortion radiators and a two hundred per cent protection grid.’

‘How close can they get?’ Westgate asked.

‘Four hundred metres.’

‘How will you defend your position in the basement?’ Pinter asked. ‘As I understand it most of the psi activity seems to be below the street level.’

‘The area will be mined and patrolled by Stingers and AMs.’

‘Annihilators?’ the Colonel asked.

‘You have an objection, Colonel?’ Zim smiled.

Ryu, and probably everyone else in the room, had seen the images of the young Pinter leading his annihilator cavalry into battle. There were hundreds of renditions of
The Last Charge of the Britons.

And history called him the Scorpion. The index reference for Scorpion always said to ‘see Pinter, Abercrombie’. When he chose to strike he would strike once, and once only. Like his namesake, he waited.
But who would his target be?
Ryu wondered.

‘No, no. Not at all,’ Pinter replied. ‘It’s just like old times.’

‘With all due respect, Colonel, annihilators have come a long way since your day. The AM17s we have in replication have been programmed with patterns of known kinetic and telepathic behaviour and are connected with a hive learning module.’

Pinter returned Zim’s smile with a smirk. ‘May I say, I admire how restrained this plan seems. I remember you used to be more prone to aggression.’

‘I didn’t say I expected them to take it lying down, did I?’ The General’s smile grew broader. It had been fifty years since he’d been in negotiations with Pinter.

‘Is this what they call “posturing”?’ Charlotte whispered to Senator Demos. He guffawed and clapped his hand over his mouth before he could switch his avatar to unreactive.

‘Can we have order, please?’ Ryu asked.

Pinter continued where he left off. ‘General, what will you do if they attack as they did at the blockade?’

‘Let me show you the Elevens.’ Zim turned back to the screens and pushed the content aside to bring up a composite view of the weaver dorms. Here hundreds of men and women lay in four storeys of immersion couches. Only the health readouts and occasional twitches revealed signs of life.

‘We have been preparing for this conflict for a long time. Each of these Elevens is connected to a squad of ten remote MUs. Every one of them has served for a decade, training in the field against psi dissidents. Each unit has a variety of weapons to disable both psi and non-psi combatants. When disabled, a new MU can join the squad within one hundred and eighty seconds.’

The members of the council seemed impressed. They cooed at the scale of the operation. There hadn’t been any actions of this scale since the wars. If then.

‘Colonel?’ The Prime turned to him. ‘What is your assessment of this plan?’

Pinter nodded, twisted his lips and made as if thinking. Ryu suspected he already had his answer, from the beginning of the session if not before, and was timing for drama. Was the Scorpion about to strike?

‘The real problem is that you’re fighting this war with the weapons from the last one. Each war is different. Each war changes the nature of battle. And I think this one especially.’

‘Colonel, I assure you these are the most advanced technologies,’ Zim said.

‘Yes, I see they come in different colours now. It is an impressive array but the whole plan rests on remotes. And remotes can be hakked.’ Zim was about to argue the point until the Colonel held his palm up. ‘But that doesn’t matter. This war isn’t on the ground — it may look like it is, but it is here.’ He pointed at his head. ‘Telepaths don’t need to think things or know how to do things. They just need someone around them who does. The psis won’t need hakkas to fight our weavers, they can get into their minds. We know it can happen.’

Ryu wondered if Pinter had just made a reference to the Takashi breach.
Surely he wouldn’t dare such an affront to my authority
?
He owes his status to my support.

Zim had no answer to give. He cut the briefing short and transferred the rest of his proposal to the council for them to go through themselves. Ryu was pretty sure that in real life Zim would be charging at Pinter like a bull, but his avatar was restrained and unreactive.

‘Thank you, General,’ Ryu said. ‘I think we shall call a recess. Let us all take the time to go over this plan —’

‘I would like to file a motion before we go any further,’ Charlotte called out.

‘And it must be now?’ Ryu asked.

‘This conference has been about launching an invasion into sovereign territory. Now is the only time to propose an alternate course of action,’ she declared.

‘Sovereign territory?’ he asked.

‘Atlantic has never been a part of the World Union,’ she said, ready with her answer.

‘Very well.’ Ryu dipped his head to her. ‘We will rejoin in two hours so we can also read Representative Betts’s latest motion.’

The council began to disappear, leaving the Prime, Pinter, Charlotte Betts and General Zim. The Prime flicked a link to the Colonel of Betts’s statement and they all read it silently.

~ * ~

Charlotte Betts, Citizen G4657 880P1 2GF47

‘Motion for peace and inclusion of psis into the World Union’

For the last forty years the World Union has had the policy of restriction and imprisonment of humans known and suspected of psionic abilities. This policy must end now.

Today I wore the psi symbol for the first time. By showing my support for the rights of psis, I am showing my support for all of humanity.

The wearing of symbols of any sort has long been verboten — since the wars, when the annihilator machines became widespread. Symbols and icons were often the first identifier of targets, and people either stopped wearing them or faced being hunted down and killed.

The psis have asked any who support their cause to wear the psi symbol. Up until this day I have resisted, as I have reservations about the manner in which the rebellion was formed. I still have those reservations, but today I learnt that our union plans to unleash annihilators upon the world once more.

I choose to wear the symbol because I support the human rights of the psionic peoples. I also wear it to show that I am opposed to any acts that remove our own humanity, as the use of these machines will do.

There must be another path for us. Another way, other than violence. At some point, humanity must discover how to end conflicts without resorting to force.

I was reminded recently that we are all part of a greater civilisation. A society that has been transformed many times over. We are at a crossroads now. Do we risk losing our humanity by denying basic rights to a certain group? Do we risk losing our agency to unfounded fear and aggression?

These are questions I will not answer for anyone. I wish every Citizen to think and decide for themselves about how we should proceed as a species.

Wearing the psi symbol and supporting motions that direct us away from conflict is a vote for peace, and a vote to maintain our way of life.

And so I, Charlotte Betts, put forward the motion to allow the psionic peoples to form their own independent state and allow them to become a part of our World Union.

~ * ~

The four of them stood in a blank load space. There was no need for the pretension of the forum construct. Now it was only four avatars staring at each other then three of them looking at Representative Betts.

‘Well?’ she said.

‘I believe this woman is a puppet of the psis,’ the General sneered.

‘The people support me,’ she answered.

Ryu himself was quite pleased with the proposal. Charlotte had taken a strong position and didn’t seem to recognise the reactions it might provoke. ‘Representative Betts, you realise your motion is an expansionist policy? That can’t go down well with your supporters.’