“Per your Supreme Pontifex, your husband does not crave rule.”
“He doesn’t. He’s a natural leader, but becoming the President was never his goal. It just sort of happened.” Oh well, in for that whole piggybank again. “He didn’t ask to be the Annocusal King Regent of this planet, either. But when the time came to choose a new Emperor of the Alpha Centauri system, he refused the crown and chose Earth as his home.”
“And therefore, to his people, he is King,” the old ayatollah said.
Considered how to reply. But Gower answered before I had to. “No.”
The room turned to look at him, as did the camera, so I had a view of Gower in the room and on my teleprompter. Didn’t see Tim, Reader, Lorraine, or Claudia anywhere but couldn’t risk obviously looking around the room to find them.
“How do your people see him?” the old ayatollah asked. The floating cameras were doing their job. The video feed was switching back and forth between him and Gower.
“American Centaurion has three leaders. The Supreme Pontifex, the Head of Field for Centaurion Division, and the Head of the Diplomatic Corps. Those leaders answer to the President of the United States, which is our home country. Jeff has been the Head of Field and the Diplomatic Corps, Kitty the Head of the Diplomatic Corps as well. Now that they’re the President and First Lady, American Centaurion answers to them. Just as we always have.”
Gower looked around the room. “But we’ve been here, long before many of you knew we were, hiding in plain sight, doing our best to protect this world from the threats against it, most of which you have no idea of because we kept them from you. And now you know what’s coming.” Pictures of the Aicirtap’s devastation came onscreen.
“American Centaurion will not turn away the refugees, because we were once refugees and, unlike humans, we remember. If we must house them in our Bases, then we will do so. And we will do what the man who’s led us for over a decade says to do.” Now Serene put up Jeff’s picture.
“Whether you want to call him President, King Regent, or merely what he’d prefer, which is Jeff, American Centaurion will follow his lead.”
Thought he was done, but Gower went on. “However, the rest of the aliens, both here and arriving shortly? They don’t actually follow Jeff’s lead.” This got the rooms murmuring again. Fantastic. “Hush,” Gower said in a normal tone. Everyone shut up. Well, he was the nice one.
“The aliens follow the lead of one person and one person only. And they’re coming to ask for help from one person and one person only. The person who repaired our alliance with the ruling Annocusal Empire of Alpha Centauri. The person who has, so far, repelled not one, and not two, but actually three alien invasions. The person who stopped a multiplanet civil war. The person who saved a planet not their own, filled with sentient life, from destruction.
“The person who forged the alliance with the Vata, the Turleens, the Reptilians, the Feliniads, the Shantanu, the Lecanora, the Canus Majorians, and the Free Women.” As he listed their planets, the representatives in the room here and the Heads of State room, which was now onscreen, stood up. Hadn’t realized it, but Renata had gone to the Heads of State room somewhere in there.
“The person who forged an alliance with the Cleophese.” At this, a picture of the Space Cthulhus appeared. Taken somehow during Operation Civil War. Presumably to show the size of the Cleophese as compared to the spaceships. The gasps in the room shared that they were impressed. Or terrified. Probably both. “And the person who repelled beings so powerful as to be gods to us, who made them leave and leave us alone.” Thankfully, no pictures of Sandy or the other Superconciousnesses, and, extra thankfully, none of them stood up in either room.
“All these aliens and more give their loyalty to one person on this planet, and one person only.” Gower pointed. At me. “Her. The aliens follow her. And if you want to live, you’ll follow her, too.”
Then he sat down. And, once again, it was time to see what was going to happen.
CHAPTER 66
ALL HEADS TURNED toward the old ayatollah, who was still standing. He was, by now, clearly the spokesperson for the entire religious body, whatever differences they had notwithstanding.
He turned around and looked at me. I looked right back because I was always up for a stare-down regardless of where or when or with whom.
“What would you have us do?” he asked me finally.
Well, for this, I actually had an answer. “Welcome the alien refugees and allow them to live where they can survive best, whether on Earth or one or more of the planets or moons in our solar system, none of which we ‘own,’ before anyone starts complaining. Gather every fighting force we have as fast as humanly possible, probably under Centaurion Division because it has the most experience with dealing and fighting with aliens, and get them prepped to fight the Aicirtap. And stop fighting amongst ourselves, because this is our Brave New World and we either go forward together, as one race, as one planet, or we’re all going to die. Not necessarily in that order.”
The ayatollah seemed to be considering this. Did my best to look calm and in control because, despite Gower’s speech, I didn’t feel confident that whatever happened next was going to go our way.
“Who do you call God?” the ayatollah asked now.
Oh goody, another tough question. This wasn’t a time to be flippant. “I’ve met beings who, as our Supreme Pontifex has said, are so powerful compared to us that they’re like gods. But they aren’t. I’ve met the people who influenced our evolution and how we think of God, both good and bad, and they aren’t gods, either.”
It wasn’t enough. Remembered a conversation I’d had with ACE so very long ago now. And what he and Algar both had told me.
“What I know is that God is vast. And God gave us Free Will so that God would not have to do it all. God isn’t one thing, or a man or a woman or a creature. God is too vast for us to understand. But I do know this—all these people who look so different or so similar to us, all these stars with all these planets in just this galaxy alone, all of this life—it didn’t happen just so that we could spend our lives killing each other in the name of whatever part of God we want to claim.”
“Who do you call God?” the ayatollah asked again.
Pondered my response. “Everyone. Everyone is part of God. Even the Aicirtap. Even the Z’porrah. But I don’t call on God to help me. I call on myself and my friends, family, and allies. God isn’t there to help me, to help us. We’re here to help ourselves and each other.”