"Don, Don, Don-"
"What is it, Will? Did he win yet?"
". . .No one won, YET!"
"Then why did you wake me up?"
"Destiel is canon and Vladimir Putin is stepping down due to Parkinsons."
"First, really?" Second, that's a farce."
"There IS report from the BBC."
"And?"
"I watched a angel make a love confession to a man then be taken down to super hell and this man was so stunned that he didn't return the love confession. Really came off as homophobic."
"Oh, you're talking about Supernatural."
"Yeah and there may be a Sherlock season 5!"
"Oh my god." Don was horrified. "Haven't they done enough ruining Sherlock?"
"I know, right!" Will said. "They already have adopted a kid. Let them keep that happy ending. Just because it isn't broke doesn't mean it needs fixed."
"If they do it, they better make it blatant that they love each other and not in the platonic way." Don said. "They've been gay for hundreds of years."
"And then they have to do Dracula." Will said. "Legally, they're obligated to give us everything that we have been denied."
"Dracula is gay?" Don asked.
It was silent on the other end between them.
"Remember when Dracula said that he can love again when looking at Jonathan Harker?"
Don had to think about that for a solid moment.
"OH." Don said then he frowned as he rolled his hands into fists. "Will, damn it, now I am wide awake." He rubbed the back of his head. "I am going to check on Pennsylvania, but if I am not sleep by tonight; this is very much YOUR fault."
Will laughed, happily, but overjoyed.
"Hopefully we'll be celebrating Biden's win by by then!"
"What day is it, again?"
"It's November the 6th."
"Election Week."
"What is it?"
"I wish I can skip this week and have Biden as President already."
"Or go to a freezing tube, sleep in there, until Judy wake you up and tells you?"
"I am actually considering that."
Will laughed even louder.
"Good night, Don. Try watching The Orville, it has a good story to think about as you fall asleep. Specifically Identity Part 2."
"Good night, Will."
Don typed in PA Election Results, his eyes remained glued to the screen for most of the day. It was comical, the man in the white house lagging behind the former vice president. Each time that he gained, the vice president would run on and on with a thousand so more votes. But Don couldn't help but be worried and stressed that a surprise would show itself despite showing in the form of law suits that the man knew he were losing.
"Don, are you okay?" Judy asked after dinner that night. "You have been looking down at the phone for most of the day."
Don looked up toward Judy.
"This election is driving me up the wall." Don admitted.
Judy laughed with a shake of her head.
"Then stop watching it." Judy said.
"I can't." Don confessed as he shook his head. "It's the fate of Earth. The decision may be made tonight."
"Don. . ." Judy grimaced. "Try to sleep."
"I am going to sleep in the other room. I just-Stressed." Don shook his hands. "You know how I am when I am stressed."
Judy nodded with sympathy.
"Okay." Judy said.
"How are you holding up?"
"Doing well for the circumstance." Judy said. "It's been really helpful working on projects."
"Any about that aforementioned reboot?"
"Nineteen years, Don. Too soon."
"Yeah and they made that period piece like television show that was almost like our adventures, who told them?"
"I don't know and I don't want to know."
Don twirled the white and gray ceramic cup looking down toward the contents.
"Neither do I." Don confessed.
"I am going to take the Chariot to the production hub in the morning, need it for anything?" Judy asked.
"Nah," Don said. "John and Maureen are out camping and don't anticipate of coming back for a few weeks."
"Good night, Don," Judy planted a kiss along Don's cheek then withdrew with the plate in hand and put it away.
Don looked toward Judy with a smile watching her retread into her cabin.
A sudden loud noise erupted Smith from his slumber and he flipped over with a scream then fell off the bed. He crashed to the floor as the dark room erupted into light then searched around seeking for the source of the abrupt noise just to discover it were coming from the small device on the table. The older man relaxed then got up to the edge of the bed, picked up the phone, then did what was necessary.
"This is Doctor Zachary Smith, what brings you to my line?"
"Smith, being in civilization is worse than I thought."
Smith relaxed as he recognized the major's voice.
"Ah. Election frustration."
"No."
"Not that?"
"The counting."
Of course. His head hit the wall. They're still counting?.
"Hph, Major, the entire world knows who has won. And how did you get my number?"
Don smiled, almost lighting up, over Smith's frown.
"I know someone who can track your specific computer searches."
Smith rolled his eyes.
"You do not know my curiosity, Ma-General."
"I do, too."
"We were out there for three years, just long enough to pin you down and be calling you. And no, everyone doesn't know for certain who has won."
"Oh, so did our President speak to the people after the four year break in democracy?"
"He has."
"What time is it?"
"Twelve thirty-four."
"Major, you have something to look forward to and that's Saturday Night Live's take on this entire absurd situation."
"We got back nineteen years ago. Everything was so simple then, everything was better, innocent, kinder, black and white, you know what I mean."
"Right and wrong so very clear to the eye." Smith chuckled in return placing a hand on his knee. "Yes, very clear. . ." Smith's amused demeanor became replaced by concern. "And Major, what makes you think everyone doesn't know for certain?"
"Well, Zach, it is just that we don't know if there will be a surge of Trump Supporter's votes coming in."
"Isn't Georgia a good sign that people want to return to normal? And please, Zachary."
"No, that's a sign of a Democrat helping people get to vote after being wronged by the Republicans. Her name is Stacey Abrams and she deserves a statue."
"I wholeheartedly agree!"
"They took away Hillary's victory, right out of her grasp, taken defeat out of the jaws of victory, then we got this maniac who proceeded to undo every little thing that was done since the CIA was dissolved, since we invested heavily in solar energy and flung ourselves quickly from ICE to EV in little less than ten years, reforms for justice, reforms for women's rights, reforms for the police, reforms-everything!"
Don was frustrated, so visibly.
"We're a laughing stock on Earth and we might even be a laughing stock to Tauron if they're listening in!"
Smith nodded.
"You think the Andronicans are amused?"
"Yep."
"Even Daddy Zach?"
"He might just be pitying us."
"Oh, he just be."
"And. . . this man has put judges throughout the nation that are in his favor. I know SCOTUS rejected the whole not counting the ballots lawsuit and just said; keep counting, but it is just. . . terrifying me."
Smith nodded in agreement, quietly listening, he was terrified. Everyone was terrified. Their first dictator was throwing a tampertantrum about losing.
"It is completely terrifying," Don rubbed his face then sighed and let his hand rest beneath his chin. The younger man smiled for a moment as he reflected. "Judy and I are lucky that we had the best scientists make the Alpha Centauri version for the Coronavirus cure a few months ago and it just doesn't work for Earth's version."
"Is it reason why there was a travel ban to Alpha Centauri imposed in March and enforced by those strange machines you call advanced space pods?"
"Yes."
"They're ugly and they don't look like Space Pods. They look too small to crowd in more than one person. Whoever designed them is a bubble headed booby!"
Don smiled, widely, then laughed.
"Judy is holding up really well and I. . . I just; it is horrific watching the system that I liked, loved, served, being dismantled over the last four years. You saw how they changed Space Corps for Space Force?"
"And your subsequent retirement."
"And how Alpha Centauri had to divorce Earth for independence?"
"Bitterly."
"And then changed their space organization to Space Corps."
"Very clearly."
"That was good."
"So good that they asked you to come back?"
"That was funny." Don chuckled. "And yet, so bittersweet."
"I can only imagine."
"Why haven't you left Earth?"
"Because I cannot risk traveling in space or stepping foot on to a spacecraft without abduction, being unwillingly taken to a political event because my COUNTERPART is SO PICKY about picking fights and dealing with ALIEN businessmen, or stepping foot on a spacecraft and GETTING LOST. No thank you, I love where I am."
"Smith, don't you live in Canada?"
"Besides the point."
"That's just very much the point."
"General, we are not discussing why I prefer to live in Canada-"
"Didn't you move there after the election?"
"-Because you like to have a simple distraction from the very damned thing that has made your current time in the Alpha Centauri system a HEADACHE. Please, talk about your fear. I haven't been keeping up with the news, I have been on a rewatch binge."
Don sighed, shaking his head.
"It's all going crazy in America. Just yesterday, they had a bomb threat at a counting center. Right now, Biden is ahead of him by at least thirty-seven thousand votes! Seems that he can't take ALL THAT WINNING! I can see all the reason why he insists they stop counting and sending his supporters via a law firm set up by a member of his campaign."
Smith laughed, loudly.
"He can't!" Smith agreed. "Absolutely."
Don stopped laughing after a long moment.
"Steven Bannon called for the murder of Dr Fauci and the current FBI director then put their heads on a stake. Twitter banned him forever and he lost his lawyer."
Smith paled.
"Losing every credibility and dignity; he is never going to hold a job after Election Week."
Don nodded.
"There was even armed people surrounding the counting center with fake ballots. FAKE BALLOTS. FAKE BALLOTS! Discrediting, undermining, and drawing out election day! It's supposed to be one day but nooo they had to make it LONGER! They didn't want to start counting!"
"And Graham is repeating his rhetoric; arrest the counters, stop the count, it's illegal, it shouldn't be done. It's so goddamn scary that there are Republicans sticking beside him, saying in a sense let SCOTUS decide who wins."
Smith nodded along.
"Hours ago, I was crying out of joy that he failed to put Joe Biden on a public box and that Joe was winning. A hour ago, I was crying out of frustration. This election is too silly to be something on our planet."
Smith remained silent as Don talked.
"It's funny, that man put him on a public box during his impeachment so everyone knows about it and know he did nothing wrong."
Smith chuckled along with Don.
"He would have won had he gotten a hand on the pandemic in the beginning, sent masks, did a mask mandate; sabotaged his re-election all by himself."
Smith nodded, again.
"What terrifies me is that he has openly admitted that he has to be taken out, kicking and screaming, even after Biden wins and barricades himself in the White House. The chance that we are going to watch him be humiliated on national and interplanetary LIVE TV, further eroding the role and the character of Presidency, I can't say that I won't be watching. . ."
"But you shall be."
"Yeah. . ." Then Don grinned. "When they ask, that's what I'll say what I was doing."
"I won't be watching." Smith confessed. "Not worth my time."
"Is this how the Germans felt watching as nationalism, racism, antisemitism took over every corner of their lives watching as a horror unfolded? Scared? Frustrated? Angry? Bitter?"
"Likely."
"I don't want the second age of Hitler to start."
"You saw the news, my dear old friend. . . Children in cages, people left with tinfoil as bedding, no toothpaste, no food, no new clothes, no new shoes, left to stand in the sun wearing the same underwear-even the same diapers for children. Wearing them every day."
Don was silent.
"We have already seen the rise of the second Hitler; crimes against LGBT has sky rocketed, crimes against non-white individuals have also sky rocketed, transgender people have been murdered for existing just because the murderers see their acts as right under the eyes of the president and performing the deed with his protection over their head. What one advantage is in this pandemic is that we have not had a school shooting for a complete year."
Don shrugged with a slight nod.
"Honestly, Zach . . ." Don started to say. "I can't wait to see the headlines of; second year in a row, no school shootings."
"Heaven!" Smith exclaimed. "That is the calm after the storm, the vibrant colors, the joy, the happiness, the bliss!"
"Very heavenily!" Don grinned as he agreed with the older man. "All that gun control being rolled back into place." Don smiled as he became teary eyed. "It'll be nice to see America coming back. Maybe. . . some reconciliation?"
"Hopefully."
"Oh, did you see the treasure secretary said that he will run again in 2024."
Smith was mortified.
"If he does, I shall have to leave this planet and come to Alpha Centauri. He'll be unhinged, furious, and destroy everything when his followers come back and elect him for a second term."
"It'll be the funeral of Earth." Don said. "Mourning."
"I won't want to come back after that."
"Delta is seen as a ideal planet to bring the remaining population of Earth." Don said. "Here's hoping they don't screw it up like they did here."
"So, they haven't called Pennsylvania, I take it?"
"It's frustrating. They should call it. He is too far ahead! Biden has won! Why don't they just admit what everyone knows and announce him as the 46th president already?"
Smith shrugged as he combed through the side of his hair.
"My dear old friend, how about you bring yourself to a Buck Rogers marathon? The 1979 version. Or a Galaxy Quest marathon? Or whatever is in your interest; just let them comfort you. Because it is all going to be alright. It is just a very long bad series finale for this political show."
"I'll see about that. Hey, thanks for listening."
"Anytime."
"Judy misses you."
Smith rolled his eyes, rubbing his forehead, then sighed as he lowered his head. He was so tired and Don wanted to keep talking.
"You can tell her that I miss her as well. Good night, Don."
"Good night."
The phone call was over then Smith returned to bed and the lights flickered out in the bedroom.
It was a day later, after tracking down Smith and calling him to discuss his stress, that he went on a rewatch of Buck Rogers for the next few hours with a additional helping of a Steve Irwin movie and the episode arch that Will had mentioned. Every thirty-five minutes, he would glance back at the phone beside him then return his attention upon the holographic projection displaying the media on the wall in the darkened Jupiter model (Jupiter 2.5, Will called it, built for Don and Judy as a place to call their own after getting married). Judy was out and about engaging in the production of a Shakespearean play as the director and Don was taking a break from his general duties of The United Coalition of Humanity's Space Corps as part of a mandated rule instituted around September.
The trauma, the loss, the chaos, the rage in the last election and the last mid terms left a mark.
Don looked over toward the phone at 11 and saw several tweets in quick concession:
With her election to the second-highest post in the nation, Kamala Harris has secured her place in history as a first — several times over.
The first woman to be vice president. First Black person. First Asian American.
President Trump is now the first incumbent president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
BREAKING: JOE BIDEN WILL BE PRESIDENT-ELECT, NBC NEWS PROJECTS.
"We won!" Don screamed. "WE WON!"
Don pressed a button, pausing the show, then made a run for it.
"BIDEN WON! BIDEN WON! BIDEN WON!"
Don's abrupt shrieks echoed in the air as people were outside strolling, who also paused in their tracks, watching him fly on by.
"DEMOCRACY HAS WON!"
Don made a mad dash for The Theater Location Shooting Hub, it was exactly where he would find Judy; the same place that he and Judy had fought to become a natural reserve, to become a shooting location, and to install some rules about harming the environment when filming. Don's eyes were watery as he tore through past the several tents screaming off the top of his lungs words that made people take their phones out and check for themselves.
Don was almost out of breath arriving to the large tent with people at chairs, some wore face shields and masks as a precautionary measure. Don grasped on to a handle then came to a abrupt halt, almost sliding forward, nearly tripping over his feet as Judy began to get out of her chair.
"Don, what is it?"
"He won."
"Him?" Judy paled, horrified.
"No, not him, Biden!" Don announced. "Biden won! Biden won! He won! We won! He did it! He did it!"
"CNN says the same thing!" Announced another.
People were looking at their phones with twitter up.
"NBC-"
"ABC-"
"CBS-"
"FOX REPORTS HE HAS NAVADA AND PENNSYLVANIA!"
Judy's shock faded then she hugged Don tightly as the cries of those few words that weren't so expected were echoing from tent to tent. It was a long cathartic moment in which the gorilla on their shoulders and their minds were gone. A free flowing well deserved cascade of happiness that would be felt in the airwaves and radio waves for some time to come. Judy backed off, wiping her tears off, then turned around to face the crew.
"Everyone, today is vacation day! We table read tomorrow!" The crowd cheered. "Now, let's go party." She turned around and spotted Don in the nearest chair, fast asleep. "First, I need help lifting Don into the Chariot!"
All was well as people helped Judy and people laughed and cried in celebration.
Smith was awakened from his nap by loud noise coming in from his window. The man in his late seventies climbed out of bed then approached the window and peered out spotting the streets were full of people, cheering, waving flags, all of whom far as the eye could see were full of people wearing masks. The jovial atmosphere in the air told him all that he needed to know as he smiled.
Smith picked up a phone once a thought crossed his mind, rivalry, anger, hurt from people who wanted fascism to win. With elements like these, there were bound to be people who simply wanted to punish others all the while expressing their utter rage that democracy was chosen over the path of fascism, over the path of dictatorship, over the path of taking rights and oppressing others. So moments like these called for people willing to help the victims in whatever way they could and Smith could help them in one practical way; mending wounds.
"This is Doctor Zachary Smith, I am willing to volunteer my time and skills should you have too many patients and too few doctors; can I be of service?"
The bells of London rang in the air as people danced in the streets from city to city all over the globe in a sheer impressive and unified way.
"Yes."
John and Maureen were camping outside nearby their tent.
It was all happy, content, with little stress from the election bothering them.
Maureen was leaned against the former President's shoulder as he gazed toward the sky that was becoming dark.
"John, look."
John looked toward the sky with lights flickering.
"Fireworks?" John asked. "Odd."
Maureen was confident as she had a tearful smile.
"Trump lost." Maureen said as John looked toward then squeezed her hand.
John smiled.
"Now, that is worth celebrating." John took out a bottle of champagne and two glasses from a picnic basket. "Thankfully, I came prepared."
Maureen laughed then took a glass and John popped it open.
"Here's to another glorious first for democracy." Maureen said as she held up her glass with a smile. "The first time two planets cheered for the loss of a incumbent president."