Casino Royale
Shortly after
"SHADO Control to Montenegro Mission: sir, we have received a direct executive order from the Secretary General, priority Zulu Red One - it reads as follows: 'To Kelly Conrad McAllister, Commander-In-Chief of SHADO: pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution UTS/001-SC-1970, you are hereby ordered to attend an emergency meeting of the Security Council immediately to account for your actions in re the unauthorised and unsanctioned deployment on the planet Earth of a Weapon of Mass Destruction.' Um, she's ordered the deployment of UN troops in case you fail to comply, sir..."
"Big surprise," Kelly sighed; 'UTS' stood for 'Ultimate Top Secret', and the resolution in question was the one creating and defining the SHADO Charter. "Tell them I'm on my way, Keith. McAllister out." He signed off and turned to Penelope. "I'll have to leave you to handle things here, Penelope. Are you okay?" he added, noting her head wound with concern, to say nothing of her seared hands.
"Meh," she shrugged, "I've taken worse for you, sir."
He chuckled, not fooled in the least by her offhand flippancy. He was well aware (and appreciative) of her admiration for him, though she would never, ever admit to such...nor should she, of course, for the sake of propriety if nothing else. He admired her just as much, both professionally and personally; in addition to being supremely competent and a highly effective leader, she was one hell of a woman...so much so that he was sure he was going to catch her in bed with Jen one of these days (Penelope's non-bi status notwithstanding). "Okay. Take charge here, see to the cleanup and amnesia treatments, and get those wounds tended to; I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Yes, sir."
Now Kelly could, at last, spare time for Jennifer, who was seated off to one side on a broken and none too stable chair; that was fitting as she looked none too stable herself, pale and shaking with aftershock. He wasn't surprised at her response to his gentle query of "Are you okay, sweetheart?":
She stood abruptly, hauled off and slapped him.
"You said it wouldn't come to this!"
"No," he protested, "I hoped it wouldn't. Ow," he added feelingly.
"Dropping me, an ordinary housewife, into a fucking firefight -!"
"You're NOT ordinary!" he returned, trying his best not to lose his temper because, dammit, she was entitled to be mad at him...up to a point. "You are a SHADO operative - and a wonderful amazing person besides! Oh, there's a lot of ways I can describe you, such as 'you stroppy bitch', but 'ordinary' is not among them!"
That did it; as he'd expected and hoped, her anger dissolved into tears as reaction set in and she threw herself into his arms.
"It's all right, Jen," he told her softly. "Everything's okay now, love."
"Oh, God, Kelly," she whispered, shaking, "I was so scared..."
"I know, I know," he soothed her, stroking her beautiful hair and rocking her gently, reassuringly. The first thing he would do when they got back, he resolved, would be to schedule a session with Harriet for her, assuming Harriet herself hadn't already done so - she was skilled in the art of anticipating when her services would be needed.
Well, the second thing, anyway, he ruefully amended. No, the first thing would of course be to accompany the waiting UN troops to New York...oh, wait, there's always good ol' Charlie-Papa-Tango, if I take off from Dubrovnik I can get there in a few hours...
"I'm sorry I slapped you," she sobbed, "I didn't mean it."
"I know, sweetheart, it's okay." She seemed to accept this, sniffling and calming down.
"Does...does that come under the heading of striking a superior officer?"
He chuckled merrily, as did Penelope and the rest of the A.R.T. on hearing it. It was a good sign, showing she was recovering her natural humour/mischievousness. "I won't tell if you won't."
"But don't you have to put everything in your report, sir?" she teased now, breaking the hug. "If you don't, it won't be complete..."
"Right, that's it," he pronounced firmly, "I am definitely rewriting the regs to permit spanking..."
She and the A.R.T. succumbed to post-combat reaction and dissolved into helpless laughter.
But that was gone by the time Kelly and Jennifer took off in the Seagull, bound for New York. She could see he was worried, but firmly resisted the temptation to attempt to raise his spirits with a quip; some people dislike being jollied along, and she knew Kelly actively hated that.
So she said nothing for a while.
SHADAIR Seagull Charlie-Papa-Tango
75,000 feet above the North Atlantic Ocean, en route to New York at Mach 4
Half an hour later
"So, um, how much trouble are you in?" Jennifer finally asked Kelly when he engaged the autopilot, as she could no longer stand the silence.
"I suppose a great deal," he sighed, "what I ordered Gay to do was in direct contravention of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963 - popularly known as the Moscow Treaty. It forbids the firing of thermonuclear weapons above ground for any reason other than officially declared war; the ban on underwater testing came later. Obviously I can justify it on the grounds of necessity, so I'm not looking at execution; but impeachment, dismissal..." he sighed again. "That's definitely on the table."
"But that's not fair," she objected, "and don't give me that trite bollocks about life never being fair! You did what you had to do - wasn't that base launching more UFOs?"
Kelly nodded. "So Moonbase and SID reported. That doesn't change the fact that I ordered the deployment of a WMD on Earth without liaising with the UN as I'm supposed to do in that event."
"There wasn't time!" she protested.
"And maybe the Security Council will accept that argument," he conceded. "Maybe."
"But if they don't...?"
"Then I'm done as SHADO's Commander," he answered quietly. "By UN law and SHADO regulations, no lesser punishment will suffice. Most likely I'll be dismissed altogether, and I'm buggered if I know what'll happen then. But I knew that might be the case when I gave the order, and I'd do it again."
"That won't...change anything else, will it...?"
He knew what she meant. He smiled somehow and shook his head. "We'll still be everything we are to each other, Jen. I'll still need you...more than ever, maybe."
"And I will be there for you," she vowed earnestly, "whatever happens. I love you."
"I know, sweetheart," he replied warmly. "I love you too."
For a few minutes they flew on in contemplative silence. She debated catching a nap, knowing Kelly wouldn't be in the mood for their usual shenanigans; certainly she felt tired after the adrenalin rush of combat, just as Denise and Penelope had said would happen. For some reason, though, her thoughts seemed focused on the exchanges between Kelly and Gay, and it was at that point that something occurred to her. She roused herself and asked curiously, "Kelly, what's a kinetic strike?"
"Mmm?" he inquired distractedly.
"Didn't Gay say 'kinetic strikes...confirmed'? She didn't say anything about nuclear strikes."
Kelly turned to face her, thunderstruck, as the word 'kinetic' penetrated and he began to feel new hope. "That's...that's right, she did...how the hell did I miss that - hold on -" He turned on the radio; she was glad to see his entire demeanour changing, brightening...though as yet she was at a loss as to why. "SHADO Control, this is McAllister, en route to New York as ordered - get me Moonbase!"
"Moonbase, Colonel Bradley."
"Gay, um...this might be a daft question, but...did you pass the FCC override codes to Harmony's squadron?"
"No, sir, I did not," Gay replied firmly. "I was about to, but then it occurred to me that a thermonuclear strike wasn't necessary given that the Interceptors were in orbit -"
"Of course," Kelly laughed, and gave a great, heartfelt sigh of relief. "I think you've just saved my career, Gay. Thanks a lot, I owe you one. McAllister out." He closed the channel, whooped and hugged a still-puzzled Jennifer.
"Um, have I missed something?"
He explained how the missile warheads hadn't actually detonated because of the FCC in each, and that Gay had instead emulated the Loonies' strategy of kinetic bombardment - no actual nuclear explosion had occurred. "You know," Kelly mused, chuckling, "I'd promote Gay to the rank of full Colonel if I could. That was an absolutely brilliant idea. Just as effective as a nuclear strike, but with no radioactive fallout and without violating any treaties - there's no treaty against orbital KEWs because they don't exist, per se. Brilliant," he went on chuckling.
"Why can't you promote her?" Jennifer wondered. "I think she deserves it."
"Yeah, so do I, and it's not the first time I've considered it...but if I did she'd end up displacing either Alec or Paul - and neither one's ready to retire just yet," he explained ruefully.
"Oh. Fair enough. So if you haven't violated the Moscow Treaty after all, that means -"
"- they can't touch me," he grinned.
"Well, I can..." she purred invitingly, trailing her fingers sensually down her body. Maybe now he was in the mood!
He paused only a moment to be absolutely sure the autopilot was engaged...
Headquarters of the United Nations, New York - Closed and Unrecorded Emergency Session of the Security Council
Five hours later
The hearing, in fact, didn't last all that long. The moment Kelly told them SHADO had located and subsequently destroyed an Alien fortress/UFO factory and a Construct production facility on Earth, they gulped and conceded that perhaps the use of WMDs had been justified after all.
Natasha Svetlana, the Russian member fighting back understandable tears, asked, "Was...was there truly no other way, Commander? We had always hoped that one day Pripyat could somehow be decontaminated and reclaimed...but now that can never happen..." She choked back a sob; Janine reached out in sympathy and placed a comforting hand on her arm. The loss of Pripyat was particularly poignant for Natasha, as Janine and Kelly knew full well...for it was her birthplace. She'd been just eleven years old, at school, when the evacuation was ordered.
She'd never gone back, and now she never could.
"And I am truly sorry for the loss, gospazha," Kelly replied gently, sincerely. "I know it represents an irrevocable historical and personal tragedy. But satellite surveillance showed each base was so heavily fortified we'd have needed an army to breach it, and they would've been required to fight encumbered by both cold-weather and anti-rad gear - and the Aliens can be very tough customers; our projections indicate better than 95% casualties...unacceptably high as I'm sure the Secretary General would agree."
"True," Janine admitted, "SHADO personnel are not considered expendable, irrespective of rank."
"An air strike would've attracted too much attention from the government of Ukraine - which is not currently a member of the Security Council," Kelly further pointed out. "Plus the Chernobyl base was in the process of launching more UFOs; they had to be stopped."
"SKY 5 -" Natasha attempted, but Kelly shook his head.
"She couldn't have taken on three UFOs at once, and the other Skydivers were way out of range." He looked rueful. "If we'd known about those bases beforehand I'd have sent Skydiver One to the Baltic as well...but we didn't, of course."
"No, I understand that," Natasha conceded, sighing. "SHADO is far from omniscient."
"Mmm. So an orbital strike seemed the best - the only - solution in the time we had. SID also detected signs of evacuation at the Pripyat base; if we'd given them time, they might just have tried again somewhere else."
Henri Dubois, the French delegate, readily pointed out, "But they always discard strategies once they have employed them, as you yourself have observed."
"That's true," Kelly allowed, "but if we started counting on that as a given -"
"- they might just do the opposite after all, knowing that we 'know' they do not repeat," Henri conceded, nodding. "A good point, Commander."
"Which still leaves us," the Secretary General interjected grimly, "with the colossal task of explaining away this flagrant breach of the Moscow Treaty, witnessed or detected by every nation on Earth. How, Commander, do you suggest we handle that?!"
"Well, one part's easily handled -"
"Oh, such optimism!"
"- the strikes were kinetic, not nuclear," Kelly persisted.
"Aw, come on!" the US Member scoffed. "Those Interceptors carry nukes -"
"- equipped with safety cut-outs that without the correct override codes - which Lieutenant Colonel Bradley did not pass to the Interceptor pilots! - prevent them from detonating on the Earth's surface or in her atmosphere!" Kelly told the Members harshly. "Straker recognised from the beginning that an Interceptor missile might be fired at a UFO, miss and end up hitting Earth instead, and that's why he ordered the inclusion of safety cut-outs in the warheads!
"No-one's detected any significant increase in radioactivity because there wasn't any! Check with your scientists what happens when a projectile travelling at escape velocity hits the ground. Read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Better yet, have a look at Meteor Crater in your own country, you tosser!" he couldn't help snapping.
The US Member had the grace to look sheepish, as did a number of others.
The Secretary General conceded, "That is a fair point, Commander. We stand corrected." She paused, and her voice lowered. "There is another directly-related matter I feel I must address, however: those codes are, supposedly, possessed only by me. They are intended and supposed to be issued only by me. How is it, then, that the Moonbase Controller apparently possesses them, and on whose authority?"
She didn't quite sound threatening or angry...not quite. The promise was definitely there, though...
"General Henderson authorised their release, Madam Secretary," Kelly answered as quietly, "after the results of a simulated emergency Earth-strike scenario clearly showed that in such an emergency there might not be time to obtain the codes via due process. Any strategy which would necessitate an Interceptor strike against Earth would by definition be a desperate last resort, because in any other situation there surely wouldn't be any need for such drastic measures." He sighed. "Admittedly we should've told you; that was purely an oversight, for which I apologise."
This was in fact true; he genuinely had forgotten to tell her. No-one's perfect.
"Very well," Janine allowed with a degree of tolerance Kelly found surprising, "I will discuss the matter with the general at a later date, though I can see your point in the context of an emergency - which certainly described the situation in Russia re those Alien bases and the fact that UFOs were being constructed and launched there. That said," she too sighed, "we must still account for the total destruction of Pripyat and Chernobyl. How? I doubt anyone will believe they were struck by random meteorites...especially as the impacts were simultaneous. Plus meteorites would have been spotted before impact."
"I have come up with a plausible cover story," Kelly answered. "We'll need the cooperation of a few members of the CRDP - and after all, that organisation no longer serves any purpose," he ruefully added. "Unfortunately it requires, well...their, um, deaths."
The Security Council was stunned rigid, until he elaborated.
"You want us to do what?!" Sergei Pushkin, the CRDP's new Director, spluttered. He and his colleagues were already discombobulated by their virtual kidnapping and rapid, covert transportation to the UN, and now this...
"Not 'want' so much as 'need'," Kelly corrected, after he'd briefed the CRDP members on SHADO. "We need a convincing cover story, so we need people to have been on site at the time of the explosions, and the CRDP is the only official body in the world whose members would've had any conceivable reason to be there at all. People believe what they want to believe, Director, and a society raised on bad Hollywood movies regarding exotic mutants and the like will be entirely willing to accept the idea of lethal mutant micro-organisms created by radioactivity."
"So you are going to...erase our memories?" Gunter Heinrich gaped. "Erase us, in effect?! Mein Gött!"
"We have the facilities to create new memories for you," Kelly explained, "ironically we got the tech from the Aliens. Even more ironically, Lisa Hardcastle is our resident expert on the technique." He ruefully noted the expressions of shock and disgust on the faces of those CRDP members who'd heard of her - shock because she was supposed to be dead, and disgust at everything she'd done whilst under Alien influence. "Obviously we can't actually just kill you, that would be a waste - and murder besides."
"So is what you're suggesting...!" Leah Kristel whispered, aghast at the very idea. "Memories make the man - destroy a person's memories, and the person is destroyed!"
"True," Kelly sighed, "but there doesn't seem to be any other way. Other than coming clean, of course," he couldn't help quipping bleakly, "and I've already explained what that would mean."
"No," Rose Willis murmured, "no, I won't do it! I have a family," she pleaded, "a son and a daughter who need me! I can't! Director, please!" She turned to Sergei, crying; he took her in his arms to comfort her.
"No-one will be forced into this, Rose," Kelly gently told her. "We can't do that. The Secretary General won't allow it. Every participant must, must be a volunteer."
"That's correct," Janine confirmed. "By my direct order, the original mission to Montenegro was given what SHADO calls the Two-Alpha designation; it seems only right that it should apply to yourselves if you are now to be considered part of that mission. Besides, performing such a radical procedure without consent would be totally unethical, at least under these circumstances." She shook her head. "As the Commander said, that would be murder."
"But...but I'll know the truth," Rose whispered apprehensively, "so you can't let me go, I know too much..."
"Rose, SHADO has an amnesia drug," Janine assured her, "thus if you refuse, you'll simply forget the last twelve hours. As far as you'll know, CRDP members went to Pripyat and Chernobyl, discovered the threat in the course of their work and volunteered to remain on site. Only the Security Council will know the truth."
"In fact, Madam Secretary, we can do better than that now," Kelly informed her. "We can simply modify their memories; Rose and any others who refuse won't even remember being brought here for this briefing. Each of them was at home when we picked them up, and they'll be at home when they wake up. So all that they'll remember is simply going to sleep, with no memory gaps."
"That sounds most reasonable," Janine approved. "So the choice," she solemnly addressed the CRDP members now, "is entirely yours, my friends."
In the end five members agreed, seeing this as an opportunity to start a new life as Kelly had hoped they would; the rest were given selective amnesia treatments and, when they heard what had 'happened', grieved for their lost colleagues while saluting their bravery and dedication. The volunteers received extensive cosmetic and, to a degree, genetic surgery, both facilitated by the nanotech SHADO was employing more and more - "Science fact catching up with science fiction again," Kelly quipped, explaining the similar use of nanotech in David Weber's novel Crown Of Slaves.
Before transformation, Dr. Jackson performed extremely detailed psycho-analytical workups to best determine exactly who they were now and exactly who the new people would be; at Dr. Hardcastle's suggestion, it was decided the 'new' people would be granted whatever the 'old' people had most desired. It seemed only fair, she opined.
Thus Leah, a childless blonde citizen of Sweden who suffered from low fertility, and from depression caused by her inability to conceive, was no longer at risk of contracting the breast cancer which had killed far too many of her relatives; Phoebe Williams, the black-haired citizen and expert scuba diver of New Zealand she became, had no such problem. Nor would the three daughters she later bore, after medical nanites identified and corrected the cause of her difficulty.
("SHADO will release these medical techniques," Kelly assured Janine when she asked about them, "when the world's ready. I promise.")
Eloise Houseman had always wanted an outdoor life and a tan, but for a Scottish redhead it was out of the question - Alice Benson, though, was dark blonde, and spent the rest of her life in Trinidad merrily (if carefully, never overdoing it) soaking up the Caribbean sun.
Gunter had spent several years wrestling with latent transgender issues; in the trickiest and most extreme transformation of the five, he ceased to exist and was supplanted by Olive Andress, who was in no doubt whatsoever as to her proper gender. Olive was a woman and proud of it, though sadly she was born without ovaries or a womb ("There are limits to what even we can do, Commander," Dr. Jackson admonished Kelly when the latter queried this). The second X chromosome, obtained from a randomly-selected female Rio de Janeiro street urchin (who was well paid for her trouble and, moreover, her silence), replaced Gunter's Y chromosome to create Olive's XX pair.
Sergei, at 5'3", was hardly someone who might be described as a hunk; Maximilian Dubrovski certainly was, though - solidly muscled and nearly a foot taller, with a wicked gleam in his blue eyes (formerly brown, a fairly simple flip of the appropriate genetic switch resulting in iris pigment loss) which many women found irresistible.
Barbara Matthews had always hated her oversized breasts and the interminable backache (and the ever-annoying pestering and leering from men!) they caused, but couldn't afford reduction surgery as she was relatively junior and thus paid less. Matilda Delacour's far more modest but still entirely ample 38Cs would have suited her far better, as would her rather more relaxing lifestyle as a vintner in (at Kelly's suggestion, though no-one was fooled by his bland expression when it was realised he'd picked Jean-Luc Picard's birthplace...!) La Barre, Haute-Saône.
However, no attempt was made to fashion them as perfect; for this to work, the new personalities had to be consistent with the normal run of humanity, which inevitably meant exacerbating old flaws and/or incorporating new ones. Alice, for example, was mildly claustrophobic. Matilda tended to bite her nails. Phoebe hated dogs with a passion (that was not in fact intentional, and Jackson was baffled as to how it had come about). Olive often overslept. Maximilian could sometimes be insufferable. And so on.
Thus they were far from perfect...but instead, very human.
Sutton Place, Manhattan
The day after the CRDP members' transformation
"Quite remarkable," Janine opined, reviewing the report from Jackson and Hardcastle.
"It's the first time we've ever done something like this," Kelly replied, "we're pretty pleased with the results."
"As long as they are," she mused, "though I imagine they will be. It was very well done, I must admit."
"We've given them the best new lives we could," he sighed wearily, "they deserved no less, of course."
"Though childless themselves, Eloise, Sergei and Leah had families," she pointed out quietly. "Now they grieve."
"I know," he nodded soberly. "But if anything, their public grief adds verisimilitude to the story. If that strikes you as coldly manipulative, well, so be it. I have to say it's still better than the only alternative, which is to tell the world a truth it simply isn't ready for."
"True," she admitted. She shook her head, shuddering. "That news conference was one of the worst experiences of my life."
Outside the Headquarters of the United Nations, New York
Twelve hours after the kinetic strikes
"Please," Janine pleaded, over the furore that had ensued from the moment she took the podium (nearly half an hour ago), "let me -"
Furious questions such as "What's the point of treaties when the organisation tasked with drawing them up breaks them?!" were roared.
"PLEASE!" she cried despairingly. The reporters took no notice. Finally a bodyguard took matters into his own hands - he fired a shot vertically into the air.
The report from an unsilenced SIG-Sauer P226 9mm is hard to ignore. Shocked, they fell silent.
"Thank you, Gustav," Janine said shakily. "Ladies and gentlemen, I will take no questions at this time - at this time," she repeated loudly over the fresh storm of protest. "A full press release will be forthcoming. For the moment I will make a short statement.
"In 1986, as you all know, an accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, resulting in radioactive contamination of the surrounding area, and the nearby city of Pripyat had to be evacuated. As is often the case with radioactive contamination, local wildlife was affected by mutation." She took a deep breath. "However, UN volunteer researchers participating in the Chernobyl Recovery & Development Programme recently discovered the presence of certain mutant viruses and bacteria which were totally unlike anything ever seen before...and which were immune to all known antibiotics, even vancomycin.
"Even the most drastic antiviral and/or antibacterial measures were ineffective. These micro-organisms, newly-evolved as far as could be determined, were reported to be incredibly infectious and more lethal than Ebola - so lethal, in fact, that the researchers dared not leave Pripyat or Chernobyl for fear of carrying them beyond each site. It was those same researchers who made a single, terrible recommendation to the Security Council:
"They recommended in the strongest possible terms that the entire region be sterilised immediately...even though they were still present. They believed that the danger posed was so great they could not leave...and that there was only one way to completely eradicate the micro-organisms - the team at each site urgently recommended an immediate thermonuclear strike.
"Time was of the essence - local wind patterns were changing in such a way that the micro-organisms might have begun to spread beyond the affected area...which would most likely have resulted in the deaths of millions. It was equally possible that they might have been carried by native animals.
"Ladies and gentlemen...it was I who gave the executive order to destroy Pripyat and Chernobyl."
The entire assembly fell silent.
"However, this was not in direct contravention of the Moscow Treaty of 1963."
They were utterly stunned by this claim. Then one reporter, in tears, cried, "How can you say -"
"The strikes were NOT nuclear!" Janine told them forcefully. "I will freely admit that was the initial intention, but just before launch a military officer suggested an alternative. She proposed the use of ICBMs not as nuclear, but as kinetic, weapons. The ICBMs were launched from Russia on almost vertical trajectories, reaching an altitude of several miles before dropping back to Earth - precisely on target. In essence," or, more accurately, in fact, she reflected ironically, "these were orbital strikes.
"The missiles were travelling at approximately escape velocity when they hit, and additional fissile material increased their mass - in fact the missiles were crammed with fissile material. The result was a tremendous, sudden release of mechanical rather than nuclear energy - all the power of an atomic blast, but with no radioactive fallout. The warheads were not armed and therefore did not detonate.
"I am relieved to report that these kinetic strikes did their work. No trace of the lethal mutant micro-organisms," or anything else, "remains at either location. The danger is past.
"I alone bear the responsibility for this act. I shall of course appear before the United Nations General Assembly - before the entire world - to answer for my actions. But I stand by them, for I believe in my heart that there was truly no...other...choice. The area was unpopulated after the forced evacuation of the samosely in 2020, and by sheer good fortune no-one was on shift in the Zone of Alienation at the time of the strikes, nor were any tourists present."
She had to fight an urge to vomit at the thought that McAllister simply could not have allowed for that; the Alien bases had to be destroyed as soon as possible, even at the cost of innocent human lives. They'd been incredibly lucky in that regard.
"Thus the only people killed directly were the researchers - and they volunteered to stay...to DIE. Their brave and noble sacrifice will surely be honoured by the General Assembly, as is only right and proper; my heartfelt prayers and condolences go out to their families, friends and colleagues." She named each 'casualty' in turn.
There were tears in her eyes and voice; even the most vociferous objectors were humbled and silenced by her obvious sincerity. Heads were bowed, abashed. They couldn't know her tears were of guilt at the horrendous lie she was forced to tell, and thus they were genuine, albeit not for the stated reasons.
Her grief, at least, was real. In one sense those five heroes and heroines really were dead - and they really were heroes and heroines, because they had volunteered to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of Mankind.
"For their loss, and for the historical loss represented by Pripyat itself, I am truly sorry. I put it to you, however, that the alternative - allowing such lethal micro-organisms to spread - would have been far, far worse. And they knew that. As surely as the men who died going up the stairs knew beyond question what was about to happen, these men and women knew the likely result of doing nothing.
"They did not feel their sacrifice to be a vain or empty one, and we have no right to debate their profound wisdom here...or anywhere, for that matter. The Premier of the Russian Federation has announced his intention to declare each and every one a Hero or Heroine of the Russian Federation, irrespective of their actual nationality, and I for one firmly believe they deserve no less.
"If the Assembly votes to impeach me, so be it; I will freely accept whatever punishment they deem appropriate. If that proves to be the case, then I wish to state it has been my honour and my privilege to serve the people of the world. My last act as the Secretary General, if impeached, will be to posthumously award the UN Special Services Medal to everyone lost in Pripyat and Chernobyl, and to award it also to the nuclear launch officer in Moscow, Vladimir Moskovich, who actually fired the missiles, to honour his moral courage in obeying such a terrible yet necessary order. He, too, is to be decorated as a Hero of the Russian Federation.
"Thank you for your attendance."
With that she turned and left, ignoring the fresh storm of outbursts as best she could while crying inside and outwardly. The people of the world deserved better than to be lied to, especially by the Secretary General.
But of course there was no other choice. Commander McAllister was right; they simply weren't ready.
Maybe things would be different in a hundred years. Somehow, though, she doubted it...and everyone here would be long dead anyway.