The president didn’t look up as an aide entered his office. He had been interrupted too many times today, and he was behind on reviewing the monthly Senate summary. If he didn’t get through it soon, he would be late for his appointment at the club. His table golf partners never seemed to respect his position of power the same way most others did. He was powerless in their presence, since most of them were old business associates of his father’s, and many had great investments in the purification industry. At any rate, he enjoyed spending time with them, it was a relief to be able to relax once in a while, and just enjoy a few drinks. Still, the interruptions were becoming an annoyance, and his response to his aide was less than gracious. Eyes closed, he grumbled, “What is it now?”
“I’m sorry sir.” Was the reply, but what surprised President Rennet was that the voice was female.
He looked up to see Dania at the door. Immediately, his voice softened, “I’m sorry Dania, it’s been a tough day. What can I do for you?”
“Priscilla Faust and Garst Jasper have returned from Mars. Albrick Hunter would like to have a word with you about their findings.” Dania was obviously shaken from the President’s reaction a moment ago, and her voice was slightly shaky as she spoke. “May I send him in?”
“Yes, please do.” The president arranged the papers on his desk as Dania returned to the door. “Oh, and please let Mr. Hunter know that I only have a few minutes, so he should be brief. I find these meetings go much more quickly if the schedule is set beforehand. Thank you Dania, as always, you are a terrific assistant.”
The door had almost closed as Albrick shuffled through, and helped himself to a seat across from the President’s desk. He was always annoyed by how the president never acknowledged him when he came in, but just kept his eyes on his desk, as if there were more important things to do. It could be very disarming, but Albrick refused to let it bring him down. He determined that he would just be bold this time around.
“Mr. President, I thought…”
“Hold on Albrick.”
Albrick lost his focus. How had the President done it again? How could he consistently get under Albrick’s skin, and throw his mind off of what he was there for. It was as if the President enjoyed conflict so much that he had to find a way to incite it. Albrick sat in the chair, tapping his fingers on the lightly padded armrest.
The president looked up as he set some papers aside, “Ok Albrick, what do you want to say?”
“I was hoping to give you an update on the status of the Homestead mission.”
“Homestead? Oh, right, the Mars thing.” The president said, with obvious mock disinterest.
“Two of our staff members returned unannounced from Mars, Priscilla Faust and Garst Jasper.”
“Didn’t we send four?”
“Yes, precisely. We sent four staff, only two of our staff returned. The craft only has space for 4 passengers, so two of the staff, Elliot Adams and Sarah Angler remained at the base on Mars. The reason was that Faust and Jasper returned with two other people.”
“Wait, other people? What other people?” The president’s voice contained tangible interest and wonder at the idea of mystery people returning from Mars. Albrick was happy, he had finally gotten the President’s full attention.
Albrick grinned, “My question was the same. It turns out that the previous Mars missions from Pre-Travesty had created a base on Mars as a sort of research station. The Homestead team arrived, and to their surprise, they were met by a very full base of people. The people there had survived many generations on Mars, and had no contact with Earth during the time, due to the lack of communications satellites after the wars.”
“Fascinating. Albrick, hold that thought a second.” The President pressed a button on his desk, “Dania, can you bring me the files on Faust and Jasper? Thank you.” He released the button, “Albrick, please continue.”
“So after some discussion, and catching up, they discovered that the Genesis people, they call their base Genesis, I don’t think I mentioned that, the Genesis people were stationed there for the purpose of studying deep space travel to neighboring stars. Apparently, they discovered ways to do it, but after one journey, gave up on it because they didn’t find much when they got there. Anyway, since then, they’ve been living there, and have survived all these years.”
“Wait, they figured out how to travel to other star systems? That’s amazing.” Albrick could tell that the whole story had touched a special nerve in the President’s heart, which brought out a child-like curiosity. “Tell me more!”
Dania walked in and left the files on the president’s desk. The president didn’t even notice, he was so engaged in what Albrick was saying.
Albrick continued, smiling to Dania as she came in, “Well, we don’t know much else at this point. The Genesis people have said that they have certain secrets that they don’t wish to share just yet, they wanted to have discussions with us here on Earth before they shared any of that with us. At any rate, they sent two of their leadership staff here to have discussions with you, and see if there’s any way to come to a cooperation agreement.”
As if a switch were flipped in the President’s mood, he shifted back into Presidential mode. “It’s unfortunate they don’t trust us. We will need to remedy that. Of course I will discuss things with their ambassadors, but I’d like to debrief the Homestead staff first.”
He looked at the edge of his desk, suddenly noticing the files Dania had brought. He looked at the door, and then back down at the files. He opened them up and briefly scanned the first pages of each. He read quickly, with the occasional ‘mmhmm’ and ‘uh huh’ before putting each aside.
“I’ll send them to talk with you.” Albrick said as he got up to excuse himself, determined that he would leave on his own terms, just as he had entered.
“Albrick, hold on a minute. Don’t bother sending Jasper, he’s just a meathead. I just want to talk to Ms. Faust for now. Thanks Albrick. This is a very exciting development, I think the Earth’s prognosis just got a lot better. You can go now, Al.”
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