Future History by Jerry Pournelle

Author:Jerry Pournelle [Pournelle, Jerry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 1978-09-25T23:00:00+00:00

XXI

“I say we only gave the Fedsymp traitors what they deserved!” Jack Silana shouted. There was a mutter of approval from the delegates, and open cheers in the bleachers overlooking the gymnasium floor. “I have great respect for Glenda Ruth, but she is not old Joshua,” Silana continued. “Her action in removing me from a post given by President Bannister was without authority. I demand that the Council repudiate it.” There was more applause as Silana took his seat.

Glenda Ruth remained at her seat for a moment. She looked carefully at each of the thirty men and women at the horseshoe table, trying to estimate just how many votes she had. Not a majority, certainly, but perhaps a dozen. She wouldn’t have to persuade more than three or four to abandon the Bannister-Silana faction, but what then? The bloc she led was no more solid than Bannister’s coalition. Just who would govern the Free States?

More men were seated on the gymnasium floor beyond the council table. They were witnesses, but their placement at the focus of the Council’s attention made it look as if Falkenberg and his impassive officers might be in the dock. Mayor Hastings sat with Falkenberg, and the illusion was heightened by the signs of harsh treatment he’d received. Some of his friends looked even worse.

Beyond the witnesses the spectators chattered among themselves as if this were a basketball game rather than a solemn meeting of the supreme authority for three-quarters of New Washington. A gymnasium didn’t seem a very dignified place to meet anyway, but there was no larger hall in Astoria Fortress.

Finally she stood. “No, I am not my father,” she began.

“Give it to ‘em, Glenda Ruth!” someone shouted from the balcony.

Howard Bannister looked up in surprise. “We will have order here!”

“Hump it, you Preston Bay bastard!” the voice replied. The elderly rancher was joined by someone below. “Damn right, Ford Heights don’t control the Valley!” There were cheers at that.

“Order! Order!” Bannister’s commands drowned the shouting as the technicians turned up the amplifiers to full volume. “Miss Horton, you have the floor.”

“Thank you. What I was trying to say is that we did not start this revolution to destroy New Washington! We must live with the Loyalists once it is over, and-“

“Fedsymp! She was engaged to a Feddie soldier!”

“Shut up and let her talk!”

“Order! ORDER!”

Falkenberg sat motionless as the hall returned to silence, and Glenda Ruth tried to speak again. “Bloody noisy lot,” Jeremy Savage murmured.

Falkenberg shrugged. “Victory does that to politicians.”

Glenda Ruth described the conditions she’d seen in Allansport. She told of the burned-out city, hostages herded into jail cells-

“Serves the Fedsymps right!” someone interrupted, but she managed to continue before her supporters could answer.

“Certainly they are Loyalists. Over a third of the people in the territory we control are. Loyalists are a majority in the capital city. Will it help if we persecute their friends here?”

“We won’t ever take the capital the way we’re fighting!”

“Damn right! Time we moved on the Feddies.”

“Send

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