Invasion

“The gun nuts are happy, at least,” Ovitz growled. He’d been a loud opponent of any form of gun control before the aliens had arrived and now, with civilians the only form of resistance in many areas, had been watching the gun control lobby disintegrate under the pressures of war. Several Governors had unilaterally revoked all gun control legislation, allowing their citizens to arm themselves to the teeth, while others had discovered that no one was listening any longer. “They’re the last line of defence.”

“You’re forgetting the League of Woman Voters,” Deborah said, just to watch his reaction. Ovitz wasn't their most favoured politician. “Don’t they get a say?”

She cleared her throat and continued. “The aliens have deployed weapons systems that make it impossible for us, even if we had the full pre-war might of the United States concentrated in one place, to recover Texas,” she warned. “We lost several units, including some of our best, before they even had a chance to shoot up some of those floating tanks. Senator, I’m sorry to put this to you, but…Texas is beyond our ability to recover.”

“And yet, the President is on the verge of a breakdown,” Ovitz said. “I have been reading the reports from his doctors. He’s stressed, is developing an ulcer, and hasn’t been sleeping enough. What happens if he decides he wants to surrender?”

“I don’t think that he is on the verge of deciding anything of the sort,” Deborah said, icily. She’d forgotten that Ovitz, fourth in line to the Presidency, would see those reports as a matter of course. “Yes, he’s not in a good state, which is hardly surprising. How many Congressmen and Senators are in the same state?”

“They’re suffering from a sudden loss of importance,” Ovitz said, with a quick grin and a wink. “They don’t like the damage that is being inflicted on their states and they really don’t like the way that power is devolving down, more and more, on the Governors. Why, dear Jacqueline was all upset yesterday because her people weren’t listening to her any more.”

Deborah rolled her eyes. Jacqueline had been a Senator who made most left-wingers look like the reincarnation of Genghis Khan. She’d been a fervent proponent of gun control, climate control, multiculturalism, homosexual marriage and everything else that tended to send right-wingers into a frenzy of rage. She had represented San Francisco, secure in the knowledge that she would never be voted out, until the aliens had arrived and destroyed her comfortable world. She’d been one of the loudest voices demanding no military preparations for First Contact…and, after the first attacks, she had continued to demand peace, not war. Her people, suddenly powerless and with an alien occupation force in Texas, only a few days away, hadn’t agreed. The only reason she hadn’t been recalled was the difficulty in having her travel back to California…and, probably, no real desire to have any further dealings with her. When – if – the next elections took place, she would probably lose by a landslide, screaming about right-wing plots and conspiracies all the way.

“But some of them want to impeach the President,” Ovitz continued. “They think that he is not living up to the role.”

“They say that in every war,” Deborah said, angrily. She had a sneaking suspicion – more than a suspicion – about who was behind it. “Did any of them seriously believe in aliens before we detected the mothership?”

“Jacqueline probably did,” Ovitz said, wryly. “They want the President to get rid of the aliens, post haste.”

Deborah thought fast. It was hard to tell what was really an impeachable offence; generally, it was whatever Congress thought it was. Every President since Nixon had faced the possibility of impeachment, although proceedings hadn’t always gotten underway. It was used more as a club to beat the President with rather than a serious threat. They didn’t have a case…but if they were angry enough, they might be able to impeach the President anyway.

“And how much better would anyone else do?”

“They just think that someone else could do a better job,” Ovitz said.

“That’s what always happens,” Deborah said, frustrated. “We have a war…people start second-guessing the President and the Government. We should be doing this, no, we should be doing that, no, we should never have done that, yes, we should have bombed there instead…”

She leaned forward, genuinely angry. “The President cannot fix the country with a wave of his hand,” she snapped. “No one can do that!”

Ovitz smiled. “You don’t think that the President should be held as accountable as everyone else?”

“You think that merely sitting in the White House confers omnipotence?”

“There have been Presidents who have believed that,” Ovitz countered.