Chapter 12: Justify your existence.
Nabiki stepped into the oval office, forcing her face calm. Here she was in the centre of power of the country that was set to dominate the new millennium and about to meet the man who ran that country. Nobody else seemed to be able to appreciate the magnitude of this for her. Ranma had accompanied her on the trip but had remained completely calm as they travelled, even now he was a few steps behind, having snagged some extra sweets from a bowl by the door. Laura had been just as bad saying no more than she was welcome to it.
Her one bit of good advice had come from Laura's husband. "I'm not going to tell you how to handle them but before you get overwhelmed by the experience find out why the white house is white." As Nabiki had stepped out of the helicopter she had stood before that most filmed of buildings and rather than tremble she had looked for the scorch marks. It was only now as she stepped into the inner sanctum that she was starting to feel the pressure again.
In front of her stood arrayed the key players in this hemisphere; General Maynard, the commander in chief of US forces; Elisabeth Wier, diplomat turned politician and the vice president; and finally, sat behind his desk, Henry Hughes, president of the United States of America, in the words of time magazine 'Second only to God and even then only by seniority.'
"Good afternoon" Nabiki said with false openness. "I'm glad we could arrange this at such short notice."
"Yea what she said" added Ranma, pushing the last oval office mint into his dress trousers. Before selecting one of the comfy seats and sitting down. Nabiki had to repress a smirk. If she wanted them off balance Ranma was doing a brilliant job. "Cool!" Ranma replied picking up a mini bronze globe from the table.
"Uh hum" coughed Maynard. "Colonel Saotome?" Nabiki let him field this one too.
"Me or her" he said pointing at Nabiki. "She's in charge I'm just here for the mints." Nabiki could swear she heard Maynard's face crack.
"I think it is customary to greet a senior officer when you enter the room" Maynard all but growled.
"Ah sure" Ranma said, "sorry I didn't know." Then he stood up and saluted Nabiki. "Ma'am," he announced, his turned back shielding his smile from Maynard's face. It was everything Nabiki could do to stop herself laughing out loud. "Seems weird to me," he added "but you should know being a general and everything."
"I think he was referring to himself and the President" Nabiki corrected.
"But they ain't my superior officers" Ranma stated finally getting to the point of his display, "I work for Earth not the USA."
"I think that is what we are here to discuss," interrupted Wier.
"Not really" interrupted Nabiki in turn. "What we are here to discuss is your continued involvement in Earth's defence." She corrected, taking a seat next to Ranma, thus refusing to have anything to do with the desk. Weir and Maynard were left looking more than a little foolish.
The president however didn't get where he was by being upstaged by two political children. "I think that's a great idea," he said, "Lets keep this friendly for now" he added, moving over to the large arm-chair reserved for his use. "Clive," he ordered a nearby aide, "Serve some coffee will you?"
Soon the five of them were seated around the low table on the lounge seats, sipping at coffee and dunking biscuits. Ranma briefly raised his cup to the president in silent toast for the quality of his coffee.
"I get it specially imported" The president said, throwing everyone but Ranma for a loop. "Come from Nicaragua" he added.
"Been there" Ranma replied, finding it on the map. "Hot and nasty!" he opinioned
"I was there with the army" The president added. Neatly establishing his military credentials.
"I was shooting bugs" Ranma replied turning to face the president, "and I lost some very good men in that jungle." The president nodded.
"Never a good thing" he consoled.
"That's where we differ," Ranma said "everyone who died there died for a reason, a cause. We all knew when we signed up that the only way out was feet first. Sometimes things are bigger than any individual. Sometimes dying is the right thing to do."
"I don't mean to interrupt" interrupted Wier deliberately, "But there are some very serious things that have come to light." With that she lay the file on the desk, hiding a triumphant smirk. Nabikiand Ranma both recognised the markings immediately.
"Where did you get that" Nabiki asked forcefully.
"I have my sources" Weir replied, happy to have the upper hand.
"You will tell me" Nabiki said, "before I leave this room." Weir sat back affronted.
"Now now ladies" The president interjected, "friendly remember."
"Sorry Mr President," Nabiki apologised with a small bow, "But the only way she could have got that file is through a traitor in our organisation and we cannot afford to ignore such leaks"
"And we can see why" said Wier still on her high horse. Meanwhile Ranma was flicking through the file. It had been censored, all the names and dates removed but it was clearly authentic.
"What ya want ta know?" he asked amiably to the President.
"Weir says this is clear proof of a conspiracy," the President said, "I am inclined to agree with her."
"A conspiracy how?" Ranma asked.
"Silence" Wier explained, "X-Com has been deliberately hiding technologies from its sponsors and selling the information to friendly companies. That is called intellectual theft."
"Steady Elisabeth," the president warned. "Have you got an explanation?" he asked.
"About what?" Ranma asked. "Do we have interstellar capability, Yes. Are we withholding scientific advancements, Yes" he leant forwards "Are we betraying anyone, No!" Weir spluttered but Nabiki silenced her with a raised hand. "The truth is Mr President," Ranma continued, "we don't tell you lot a tenth of what's going on topside, you just ain't secure." And with that he sat back and drank some more coffee.
"Are you questioning the integrity of the President?" Weir asked flabbergasted. "What arrogance!"
"He's not questioning anyone's integrity, yet" Nabiki interrupted. "What he is saying is that some of what we know would have a major destabilising effect on terrestrial populations. Simply put some of it is capable of changing the very fabric of society."
"For example" the president asked.
"Regen tanks" Ranma responded. All eyes switched to him for an explanation. "Prolonged use of them can cure practically any illness and even actually reverse the cell aging process. Apparently that means that you can live forever if you have one."
"This is exactly what I'm talking about!" Weir exclaimed, standing up. "Technology like that can save millions of lives. There are literally millions of people in this country who are suffering needlessly because you decided to keep that secret.
Ranma was about to respond when Nabiki stopped him with a touch on his arm. Instead she took a small calculator sized box out of her jacket and put it on the table.
"What's that?" demanded Wier.
"Privacy in a box" replied Nabiki, intentionally curt. She let Wier stew for just long enough to decide to ask before answering the unspoken 'how?' "It scrambles active electrons, finely tuned it is capable of preventing any known recording device from doing its job."
"Really?" Maynard said, intrigued.
"No" Nabiki replied, "it works nothing like that but it's a good lie." The others paused to look at her. "It does however stop eavesdroppers and should mess with visual recordings."
"This is the oval office!" Maynard exclaimed.
"Yes, and in this room one president had an affair with an aide" Nabiki said.
"More than one" the president corrected.
"The point is we know they did. The information got out. That is not acceptable," she finished. "Now Ranma you were saying.." she prompted.
"Er yeah," he began "the way it was explained to me is fairly simple. The fountain of youth thing is a commodity that every one on Earth has a right to, if we let it loose too soon then all we will achieve is panic, rioting and economic collapse. The only way the world has to regulate it is by economics, a system I am assured is totally unfair by its very nature. The same day we let the secret out, pharmaceuticals companies collapse, welfare topples, and riots begin. By the end of the week only martial law keeps order and even then they have to promise equal distribution, which bankrupts whole nations and turns millions into migrants heading for where they can get the treatment."
"It doesn't have to be that way" Weir said. "we could save it for the worst cases to start with, hide the knowledge of how its done."
"Imagine you are the secret and this room is the containment, there should be no doors right? The secret is held tight. But it don't work that way. First there's The president here, he's a widower but has what two children?" the president nodded. "Imagine one of them is hurt are you going to tell him he can't help them?" he turned to Wier, "Are you going to tell your own mother she has to die for national security? Or even a boyfriend?" Nabiki could see he was making his point. "So suddenly there are doors, but that's okay they only lead to new rooms, only it turns out they have doors too. And so on until you are standing in the fresh air, and the city is burning down around your ears."
"So we let them die?" Weir said exasperated.
"Yes" answered Ranma. "all of them."
"Who made that your choice?" Weir demanded.
"The agents who died to secure the alien regeneration tanks. The Agents who worked day and night to crack the control codes" Ranma admonished prepared to go on, but Nabiki interrupted.
"The question you should of asked is what makes us a better room" Nabiki informed them, and received a reluctant nod from Wier in response. "For that I would like to show you an example of our security staff, Ranma please stand up." He Complied. "Who was Tupol Kivenski?" she asked him.
"Corporal Tivenski was one of my best agents" Ranma replied.
"Was?" Nabiki prompted.
"He died over Cydonia base, before that he had served for nearly two years. He had a wife and two kids. I am the youngest's godfather.." Ranma answered, pain flickering across his face.
"How did he die?" Nabiki continued unrelentingly.
"I shot him through the back" Ranma replied.
"Why?"
"The aliens got a foothold in his mind. He was compromised." Ranma responded, hiding his regret behind a mask of efficiency.
"Was he the first you killed in this way?" Nabiki asked, relenting a bit.
"Not by a long way" Ranma responded, taking his cue to sit. Nabiki turned back to the others.
"So what?" Wier asked, "Because you have no sense of loyalty that makes you better than us?"
"No" Ranma interjected. "Because we are capable of making the hard decisions. Because we are supremely loyal, because we –"
"Enough" Nabiki interrupted, defusing her husband's rising anger. "What Ranma is saying is that his room has no doors. He and I have a child, we both know that should it come to that he'll snap either of our necks rather than let the aliens use us against the Earth. I love him but I also know that he's capable of killing me." Sh held out her hand for Ranma to hold.
"The universe is a hateful place, it is harsh and unfair. The good guys rarely win. Victory goes to the strong, the resolute not the righteous." Nabiki continued vehemence in her voice. "In your universe doing the right thing is enough, it simply isn't true in the real world!"
"Steady" the president warned. Nabiki took the hint and shut up, collecting herself again.
"This is what I am talking about" Wier said, far from calm herself. "You met three unidentified vessels in deep space. Your people's first reaction was to fight them. To kill. To destroy. What a wasted opportunity, what an irresponsible act. What id they had been friendlies, what if we could have allied with them what if-
"Don't be absurd" Ranma all but shouted. "We are at war! They are trying to wipe us from the face of existence! There can be no peace, no friendly talks. From the moment they came back it was us or them. And I sure as hell ain't gonna let it be us just cuz some Diplomat wasted time talking!"
"Diplomacy is never a waste of time!" Wier insisted back, once more on her feet. "There is always a peaceful solution!"
"Bull!" Replied Ranma, now also standing. "The only peace is the peace of a graveyard."
"The only good alien is a dead alien?" Wier asked sarcastically.
"Damn right!" Ranma asserted.
"They said that about the Japanese too," she replied. Ranma had to resist the urge to hit her.
"People. Please" interrupted the president. "We are trying to be civil here." Both the combatants stopped. Weir retreated to her seat, Ranma bowed to the president and did the same.
"She does raise a significant concern," the president continued after a long silence. "X-Com may not be the best face to show the universe."
"The only thing we need to show the universe is the open end of a barrel" Ranma muttered, Weir waved her hand at him in exasperation.
"While I believe that the work you have done has been in all our best interests," the president began again, "I feel I have a responsibility to those who elected me to ensure we have all the facts." Nabiki nodded, Ranma shook his head. "To that end I am sending a personal representative to assess our involvement and your effectiveness."
"No" said Nabiki, startling everyone else, "I am sorry that is not acceptable."
"Acceptable or not it is going to happen" replied the president.
"We will be more than happy to invite a representative to view our operations" Nabiki said, causing a few raised eyebrows. "But we cannot allow you to arbitrarily 'send' anyone. There is a very important difference."
"Authority" concluded the president. Nabiki nodded.
"Authority," she agreed, "It is essential that we are not seen to be the puppets of any one nation or power block."
"If we have the ability to 'send' an overseer then we are capable of ordering you to receive one." The president explained. "If we can give you orders then you are dependant on our nation."
"Hence the lack of salute" Maynard said, and Ranma nodded.