Starship Armstrong - Season 3

Part 53 - Coincidence and Misunderstanding (X)

Gibson and the rest of the delegation were swiftly whisked away to the Terradrome. A seemingly endless gauntlet of security checkpoints subjected them to all manner of metal detectors and chemical sniffers, none of which noticed the ion pistols they all carried.

Of course they would have happily turned them over if anyone bothered to ask.

After more than a standard hour of ineffective security procedures they were finally brought through finely decorated hallways until they arrived at the office of the President of Terra. Stone-faced guards wearing sunglasses indoors pushed open the two great double doors.

The President of Terra was sitting at the same desk from the transmissions, scribbling on a blank piece of paper so he looked busy in front of the outsiders. He took a few moments to finish his scribble before he acknowledged the others.

"Where's the Captain?" asked the President, without so much as a 'hello'.

"On the Armstrong," said Gibson. "I'm Commander Gibson. I've been sent to represent the Huxley Foundation. This is Lieutenant Ngige, Dr. Kang, and Ensign Takahashi."

"Hello," said Lieutenant Ngige.

"Talk talk talk," said Dr. Kang. "All you ever do is talk Lieutenant. I'm sick of hearing it. You're not even the Chief Engineer anymore why are you even here?"

"That's insensitive," said Ngige.

"Nobody has time to listen to your one man show about your feelings. Why did you introduce him first, Commander? There's no way to interpret that other than as a deliberate slight against me."

"That's enough, Doctor," said Gibson.

"This is quite the motley crew your people have sent to me to negotiate the absorption of your colony back into the greater Government of Man," remarked the President.

"No..." said Gibson. "That's- No... No. You are operating under a number of misapprehensions."

"Oh yes?" asked the President, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What would those be?"

"Your planet is not the homeworld of humanity. That is a planet called Earth in the Sol system. Your planet was terraformed and colonized by the Martian Republic several thousand years ago and your people have forgotten your own history in the intervening dark ages."

"That's nonsense," said the President.

"Furthermore there is a second planet in your system, also inhabited, also calling itself Terra, also operating under the same misapprehensions. You just can't detect it because it's in a near-perfect 180 degree orbit opposite yours."

"I see," said the President.

"We recognize that this information could be potentially disruptive to your society so we haven't been spreading it around but as a starting point for negotiations it's important that your leadership understand the reality of the situation."

"So what are you saying, you're here to try and absorb Terra?"

"Well, not necessarily. If at some point Terra wishes to apply for membership in the Huxley Foundation we'll consider the application. At the moment we're just here to reconnect with the lost colonies and try and help nurture the seeds of civilization out here."

"This is a lot of new information. Thank you very much for bringing it to my attention. I hope you don't mind if I cut this meeting short, I need to speak with my people."

"Oh," said Gibson. He was disappointed but understood. It was a lot to take in at once, this was a complete paradigm shift for them. "I understand. Will you be able to meet again soon?"

"Count on it," said the President.

As soon as the Armstrong group was gone the President had his top advisers paged. They rushed to the office like their lives depended on it, mostly because they did.

"Some very disturbing information has come to light," said the President, once they were all gathered.

"What is it?" asked the Shadow Minister of the Secret Police.

"The explorers from the lost colony aren't from a lost colony at all! They're spies from the false Terrans, here to try and undermine our social cohesion with insane anti-Terran propaganda."

"This is an outrage!" declared the Minister of Propaganda. He leapt from his seat.

"It is indeed," agreed the Shadow Minister, "but it could also work to our advantage. We should ask to go to their ship and speak with their Captain in person. This will force them to bring us to their secret lair. Then our soldiers, cleverly disguised as diplomats, will kill them all and cut off the head of the insurrection."

"Yes!" exclaimed the President. "Yes! They may think they have fooled us, but this time the fools will become the foolish!"

No one present had the nerve to correct him.

* * *

At the same moment Mitzner's delegation was being ushered in to a virtually identical office to speak with a virtually identical President only with the blues and greens inversed. The security procedures had done an equally poor job of discovering a vastly greater number of weapons primarily being carried by the Lieutenant-Commander.

President Gibson was drawing stick figures fighting one another when the group came in. He finished his picture before speaking so he would look busy. He was quite impressed with himself for thinking of it. He really was a rare genius.

"Where's the Captain?" he asked.

"On the ship," said Mitzner "I'm L-, er, Commander Mitzner of the Huxley Foundation Starship Armstrong. I'm in charge of this delegation you can talk with me. This is Ensign McAfree, Ensign Wagner and Ensign Anhkbayar."

"But the Captain is on the ship?" asked the President.

"Yes," said Mitzner.

"She's too important to negotiate her own people's re-absorption into the central government of their species? Isn't that a thing."

"Alright. I didn't want to have to get into this so fast but there are some things you should know. Your planet is a former colony of Mars, which is a former colony of Earth. That's the homeworld of humanity. You're just the homeworld of... you guys. We're not going to join your local government we represent the largest interstellar polity in the galaxy."

"They got to you didn't they?" snarled the President. It was uncharacteristic of the man, like a mask had dropped.

"Who?"

"The false Terrans!" he shouted. "You're working for them aren't you?"

"That is ridiculous," said Mitzner. "We told you we're with the Huxley Foundation, the government of the core worlds."

"Get out! Get off! Get out of my office, get off of my planet, and get away from me!"

He pressed a button on his desk and the two men outside the door came rushing in. They immediately began to corral the group out of the office with unnecessary physicality.

Wagner in particular was given a rough time of it, and his uniform jacket became twisted up. A slip of paper fell from the interior pocket and fell to the ground unseen.

The group was quickly gone. The two doors shut behind them. The President got up and locked them.

That's when he noticed the paper on the ground.