MARS: The Martian Autonomous Republic of Sol (The New Frontiers Series Book 5) by Jack L Knapp

Author:Jack L Knapp [Knapp, Jack L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Many Moons Publishing/Jack L Knapp
Published: 2017-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“We don’t need a defense department!” The speaker was Geoff Quest.

Jaime sighed. “You’re right, Geoff. We won’t need one until we do, and then it may be too late.

“All the change does is make it legal for the government to nationalize ships in an emergency. Make it clear that the tax won’t become active unless the president declares a state of emergency. The only part that’s effective on ratification is approval of the plan to claim Venus. Or are you objecting to that too?”

“Not as long as that’s all you’re doing. Look, don’t misunderstand; I realize we may need to respond at some time in the future, but spending money we don’t have before we need to? Just look at the history of Earth; as soon as you have an armed force, the temptation is always there to use it. As for ships, the Flicker helped last time, they’ll help again.”

“Tried to call Flickertown lately, Geoff? They’re sealed tighter than your credit account!”

Chuckles erupted around the room; Geoff was notoriously tight-fisted. He glowered and sat down.

“We don’t need a navy right now, but claiming Venus will piss off Earth. We’re cloaking it as a defensive move, but it’s not,” Jaime said. “Venus is closer to Earth than it is to Mars, just in case you overlooked that minor fact. We don’t know how the Solar Union will respond to us moving Ceres there, but they’ll do something; they’ll probably have to.

“Even so, this is the time to act, while the SU is trying to deal with riots. They’ll get a copy of the Constitution, we can’t avoid that. Just put in something to the effect that the government is authorized to undertake defensive measures as ‘necessary and appropriate’.

“Here’s the problem,” Jaime continued. “When you put in a provision for Mars to nationalize ships, also mention that for larger threats we expect to ally with the Solar Union. What threatens us threatens them, and vice versa. We don’t like what they’re doing to Chuck and his family, but we still need Earth. It’s one thing to make a point, but we don’t want to force a break in diplomatic relations.”

“What about Makemake? I’d like to add that too.”

Jaime sighed. “Manny, do you know how big Makemake is? Or how far away it is? You really want to push a protoplanet from the Kuiper Zone to Venus? It takes at least a month to get there in a ship. And that’s by going directly from Mars to the Zone. The only time ships do that is when they relieve a ship that’s dropping off Breadcrumbs. If they’re on the opposite side of the sun, you can more than triple the travel time.

“Just how many drive units and fusion torches do you intend to employ? Where do you propose to get them? Who will emplace them, and where? How controllable should Makemake be? Once you start it moving, you can’t stop it; it will take as long to slow it down as it does to start it moving.

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