A Just Farewell Read Online Free Page A

discussed the merits of his
ultimate answer, but he feared any kind of debate would not survive
the moment the clerics reached up from their underground shelters
to sweep the castles and starships out of the stars.
     
    Governor Praxis spoke after all his
colleagues returned to their seats. “We’d like to go ahead with the
vote now, General, unless you have any objections.”
     
    “I’ve nothing else to offer,” General
Harrison nodded.
     
    General Harrison turned his attention to the
large monitor that tallied the anonymous votes cast by the
governors. He didn’t expect to win all fifty-one votes on that
first round, and the general held a strategy on how he would
proceed following the initial tally. He hoped, however, that the
first round of voting would show him how close he was to receiving
approval for the ultimate answer. He was unsure if winning a
unanimous vote on such a terrible proposal was even possible. How
far would he go to defend those castles orbiting the remains of a
dying planet? Would he fight the governors themselves? Would he
overthrow the government he loved, to institute his ultimate
answer? General Harrison felt his stomach sour as he watched the
votes click on the large monitor.
     
    Those votes appeared very slowly at first,
but they dotted the screen quickly as other governors followed
their braver colleagues who first presented their answer. General
Harrison emitted a sigh of relief into the microphone at the
results, and he hoped the governors would forgive him for his tell
of emotion. Did they expect their general to possess an uncaring
machine’s heart? He would be a very poor commander indeed if he was
composed of metal rather than bone. There was hope expressed on
that monitor of votes. Fifty governors expressed their approval for
the ultimate answer. The general only waited to see how the last
vote fell.
     
    The final mark flashed upon the monitor, and
it was a negative vote against the ultimate answer.
     
    “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” General
Harrison spoke. “I trust all of you still agree to grant me that
second round of voting.”
     
    Governor Aldrich nodded. “We do, General
Harrison. We assume that you’ll want to have that vote sooner
rather than later giving the gravity of our situation.”
     
    “I ask for one month.”
     
    “Then you have it,” agreed Governor Praxis.
“Barring no further calamity in the meanwhile, we will reconvene
one month from now.”
     
    General Harrison gathered his papers as the
governors fled from the hall, likely to douse their trepidation in
whiskey sours and gin and tonics served in the nearest castle bar.
He only needed to secure one vote, and he had the mechanism in
place to achieve it. Everything would come down to a single
governor, and General Harrison didn’t envy the woman or man who
would no doubt now felt the weight of old Earth fall upon his or
her shoulders. He wondered who hesitated to approve of the ultimate
answer, but he didn’t think he would have to wait for very long
before learning the identity of the single governor who denied the
plan’s terrible execution.
     
    General Harrison knew the enormity of it all
would bring that lone, abstaining governor to him.
     
    * * * * *
     

Chapter 4 – Slender Shoulders Holding the
Weight of the World

    Governor Kelly Chen slumped in her seat as
she felt the weight of the world crush upon her slender shoulders.
She had reluctantly run for the governor’s office of the Neo Madrid
space station, agreeing to pursue the title only after her family
and neighbors urged her to bring the pluck and focus she had
displayed while maximizing her station’s yields from its hydroponic
gardens to the chief executive’s office. Kelly had never craved
power, had seldom craved attention or clout. Yet she sat in the
front row of Neo Madrid’s great cinema and opera house all the same
and considered whether or not she could agree to the destruction of
an entire