Dark Matter (62 page)

There was uproar.  Most countries knew that something was coming down the pipeline but few had expected this.  Dozens jumped to their feet, shouting, demanding to be heard.  Jay gave them a few minutes to let off some steam, all too aware though that the cameras were still relaying the events live around the world.  Jay waved them back into their seats so she could continue.  She laid out before them her plan, her structure for a World Government.

It took some time.  The graphic she had produced helped and the more she explained it, the more the simplicity and fairness of the plan permeated their minds.  The new structure called for a new legislature, the World Parliament.  The parliament would consist of two houses, the lower, and the upper houses.  The lower house, called the House of Civilisation would itself consist of three bodies; the Land Body, the Resources Body and the People Body.  Each body would have an equivalent voting right and would have representation from each country in direct proportion to the percentage of the world it constituted.  The People Body was the easiest for Jay to explain, so she started with that one.  There would be one representative from each country, but they would cast the number of votes equal to their population.  The Land Body came next and here too it was relatively easy, with each representative casting votes proportional to the size of the land mass of his or her country.  The Resources Body was more difficult to explain as it was to be comprised of two parts; gross domestic product, the annual value of the economy of each country, added to that country's holdings of Gold and proven Gold reserves not yet mined. 

This gave countries with higher populations, larger landmasses or more valuable economies more say in the newly formed Parliament.  There was something in the plan for every country.

The upper house called the House of Belief would need to ratify any legislation passed in the House of Civilisation.  It would consist of representatives from every religion or belief.  They would vote the number of votes proportional to the number of people’s beliefs that they represented.  Each representative would also receive an additional one hundred special votes.  In order for a vote to count, it would need a majority of the regular and special votes.  This Jay had added to ensure that the larger beliefs couldn't swamp the smaller beliefs.  One representative from each belief system of each country would be admitted.  Those with no stated belief would be represented by secular representatives to ensure that every voice was heard.

The House of Belief seemed to seal the deal with the audience.  Recognising people’s beliefs or religions and giving these the final say in the legislation that was to be adopted calmed any remaining fears.  Again, it would favour the larger religions, but with the addition of the special votes, the rights and interests of the smaller religions would be protected.

The World Parliament would elect a person to be President and Commander in Chief to hold the executive power of the government.  That person would have full, direct control of all civilian matters pertaining to the proper functioning of the World Government.  They would also, as Commander in Chief, have direct control over all Unity forces.  Unity would be expanded to include some forces from all countries.  To ensure that the President did not abuse their powers a legal structure would be put in place and they could challenge any decision or action of the president, with the ultimate sanction of having that matter debated in the World Parliament.

As Jay finished she looked up at the audience.  She could see that she had them on board.  There would be arguments and challenges for sure, but the essence of the plan was what mattered.

'I would like to call for a vote on this plan and should it be accepted then this body shall be discharged upon the successful implementation of the plan to be not more than one year hence.'  Jay relaxed, just a little, as she completed her speech.  It was up to the delegates now.  However before they would get to vote Jay had one last card to play.

'Delegates.  Before you retire to consider your vote, I must just impart one final crucial item.  As you know the secret alliance built the weapon that destroyed the main Sunarr ship.  What you do not know is that the same alliance has built more of the weapons.  These weapons have been mounted on board re-configured Nuclear Missiles.  They are powered by the very nuclear material that was in the warheads.  In a few minutes, these missiles will launch into space and deploy the weapons platform.  This is to help protect Earth from another invasion by the Sunarr or anyone else.  The weapons will be under Unity control, and their control will be under the new World Government if that is voted for.  I believe we can now switch live to an Earth satellite to watch the launch of the defence system.'

The room was quiet, very quiet Jay noticed, everyone frozen to the spot, their eyes fixed on the large viewing screen as around the world missiles left their silos, each of the nuclear powers was represented so as not to alarm any other.
Didn't want the protection of Earth to cost us a nuclear war,
Jay reflected soberly.  Sixty missiles tore through the atmosphere, leaving behind the heavy weight of gravity they moved into a very high Earth orbit.  They had six others prepared in case one or more failed, but they were not needed.  Every missile performed flawlessly, delivering its cargo to its appointed position in space.  Jay motioned to John Deeth to join her on the platform.  John walked up to the lectern, Jay stood to one side allowing John to use it, and the microphone fixed to it.

'Err.  Hi.'  John began, never before having addressed such a large audience.  'My name is John Deeth and I designed Constellation.  That's what I have called the defence platform, Constellation.  There are sixty weapons platforms in all and they are designed in a Buckyball shape.'  John paused for a second realising that few people there would know what a Buckyball was or what shape it was.  'Think of it like a football.  A football appears round because it is made from Pentagons and Hexagons interlocking.  That is five sided shapes and six sided shapes.  I have done the same with Constellation.  There are sixty platforms deployed in space now which surround the earth in the shape of a football, so the whole earth is covered, protected.'  He was making sure that his language was as simple as he could.  'Each platform actually has four weapons on board.  Thus if the surrounding three platforms are destroyed, the remaining one can resupply the other three positions.  This should provide integrity to the system.'  John wanted to end it there; he wasn't enjoying the attention strangely enough.  'Any questions?'  He asked, hoping to draw it to a close.

One of the delegates leaned forward and activated his microphone.

'Who controls it?  Why was a weapon of mass destruction deployed without our approval and what is to stop it from being used against us?'  The questioner’s tone was even, but the anger was evident.

‘Well,’ John began, forgetting where he was and to whom he was talking.  'Firstly, I control it.  Secondly, it is not a weapon of mass destruction; it is a point defence weapon so it would be pretty useless to turn it against earth, except...'  John decided not to finish that point as he remembered where he was.

The delegate switched on his microphone again.  'Except what?'

‘Except,’ John continued, realising that he wouldn't be able to bluff his way out of this one, 'It would be very effective against weapons of mass destruction.  Constellation could, theoretically, shoot down and destroy any nuclear weapons within seconds of them launching.  So you really have nothing to worry about.'  John tried a smile, but he could feel Jay next to him wanting to take the floor again, he stood aside with great relief.

'Just to clarify,’ Jay began, desperate to limit the damage John had caused, 'Constellation is under the control of Unity.  It is a defensive platform designed for the protection of Earth and that is the only purpose to which it will be put.  There will be a further briefing later to answer any other questions, now if you would like to retire and consider your vote.  Thank you.'

Jay hurried John off the podium.  When she was sure that they were out of sight and the reach of microphones, she turned on him.

'What the hell did you tell them that for?'

'What the truth?'  John didn't really grasp what she was getting at.

'That you have personal control of the greatest weapon in human history!'

John stared at Jay, bewildered by her apparent inability to grasp a simple fact.

'But I do.'

'What do you mean
you do
?' 

'Unity doesn't control Constellation, there is only one access code, and only one person knows it.  Me.  I have full and complete control of Constellation.  It’s the way I designed it.'

John really couldn't understand why Jayanti wasn't pleased.  When the concept of Constellation was first put forward, he had decided that he didn't want to risk his work falling into the wrong hands as that would be dangerous.  He considered any hands other than his own to be the wrong hands and that was why he had designed the system so only he had control.  It really was that simple he thought. 
Why do politicians always have difficulty with the simplest of concepts?
  John asked himself.

Jay was ready to explode.  Instead, she took a deep breath and decided to let it go for the moment, she would need to take some advice first anyhow.  Control could not be in one person's hands, that much she knew by instinct, but for the moment, it would have to remain so.

'Sorry John,’ Jay said to help John relax, 'I've just had quite a day.  Of course you have done the right thing.' 
He doesn't realise the power he has… and I don't want him to.  I'll need to keep him under guard and away from others. 
Jay decided that John would have a long, private holiday somewhere.

Kefallonia, Greek Islands, Greece.

One year on.

The Greek government had agreed to lease the island of Kefallonia to the World Government on an indefinite basis.  In this way, Greece didn't have to relinquish territory and the World Government got a permanent base.  The Kefallonians, initially resistant to the agreement, gave their consent when it was decided that they would receive dual Greek and Quasi-Diplomatic status.  This made the island effectively a free trade zone and the arrival of thousands of diplomatic staff and others brought year round employment.  It was not widely known why it had been chosen.  They were not aware that after the vote to establish the World Government had been passed the year before, Jayanti Kapoor had arranged a holiday for all the alliance VIPs including John Deeth.  He had fallen in love with the island and swore he never wanted to leave.  A laboratory had been established there for him so he didn't have to.  Jay, wanting to transfer control of Constellation from John to Unity, decided to build it around him and no one challenged her decision.

Unity had grown.  It was nearly at the point where it had forces from all countries swelling its ranks.  The news that they were building a space borne fleet of ships had been leaked at the appropriate time.  When no one from the World Government denied it, it was reported as fact.  Dozens of countries were involved in the construction, with six major production facilities around the world, and hundreds of smaller, specialist ones too.  The design for the construction of the fleet had fallen to John Deeth.  This plus his increased personal lifestyle had been contributing factors in his agreeing to transfer control of Constellation to Unity. 

After the tumult of freeing themselves from the clutches of the Sunarr, John had managed to spend some more time in his laboratory.  Free of the worry of the Sunarr he had finally put the crystal into the Sekkos device.  The headset threw-up an image and it was one that stunned him cold.  The crystal held a map.  A twenty thousand year old map of the galaxy.  There were dozens of inhabited planets.  It was this discovery that had given the urgency to the construction of the space fleet.  There were others out there.  They had a mission.

About The Author

John Rollason was born in 1968 in the English coastal town of Great Yarmouth.  His mother was present for the birth, which made matters much easier.  Growing up was somewhat difficult due to his being born middle-aged.  He regularly skipped school to watch Open University programs on TV, read the financial pages or just daydream. 

He has, at various times in his life, been employed as a Carpet Cleaner, a Welder, a Fruit & Veg Seller, a Computer Programmer, and a Business Analyst.

He tends to write outdoors on a Netbook whilst under the influence of copious amounts of Caffeine and Nicotine. 

He lives near Windsor with his wife and two Cocker Spaniels.

http://johnrollason.wordpress.com/