MARS: The Martian Autonomous Republic of Sol by Jack L Knapp
Author:Jack L Knapp [Knapp, Jack L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B072C2192R
Publisher: Many Moons Publishing/Jack L Knapp
Published: 2017-05-20T05:00:00+00:00
Chapter Twenty
âWe donât need a defense department!â The speaker was Geoff Quest.
Jaime sighed. âYouâre right, Geoff. We wonât need one until we do, and then it may be too late.
âAll the change does is make it legal for the government to nationalize ships in an emergency. Make it clear that the tax wonât become active unless the president declares a state of emergency. The only part thatâs effective on ratification is approval of the plan to claim Venus. Or are you objecting to that too?â
âNot as long as thatâs all youâre doing. Look, donât misunderstand; I realize we may need to respond at some time in the future, but spending money we donât 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, theyâll help again.â
âTried to call Flickertown lately, Geoff? Theyâre sealed tighter than your credit account!â
Chuckles erupted around the room; Geoff was notoriously tight-fisted. He glowered and sat down.
âWe donât need a navy right now, but claiming Venus will piss off Earth. Weâre cloaking it as a defensive move, but itâs not,â Jaime said. âVenus is closer to Earth than it is to Mars, just in case you overlooked that minor fact. We donât know how the Solar Union will respond to us moving Ceres there, but theyâll do something; theyâll probably have to.
âEven so, this is the time to act, while the SU is trying to deal with riots. Theyâll get a copy of the Constitution, we canât avoid that. Just put in something to the effect that the government is authorized to undertake defensive measures as ânecessary and appropriateâ.
âHereâs the problem,â Jaime continued. âWhen 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 donât like what theyâre doing to Chuck and his family, but we still need Earth. Itâs one thing to make a point, but we donât want to force a break in diplomatic relations.â
âWhat about Makemake? Iâd like to add that too.â
Jaime sighed. âManny, 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 thatâs by going directly from Mars to the Zone. The only time ships do that is when they relieve a ship thatâs dropping off Breadcrumbs. If theyâre on the opposite side of the sun, you can more than triple the travel time.
âJust 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 canât stop it; it will take as long to slow it down as it does to start it moving.
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