Fic: The Black Ships, Part XV
Previous Chapter: Part XIV
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like to welcome, in an intergalactic Daily Show first, Laura Roslin.” Laura fixed her jacket in one last nervous motion before walking out into the lights and the atmosphere of the live audience with a wave and a grin, stopping at Jon Stewart’s desk to shake his hand.
She’d been shown a few tapes of the program before she’d agreed to come on, mostly because the White House was afraid that she wouldn’t understand the nature of the show, but after watching she’d been more enthusiastic about coming.
“Interstellar, not intergalactic. Same galaxy,” she corrected.
“Pashaw,” Stewart waved dismissively, “Galaxies, stars, planets, what’s the difference?”
“Quite a lot.” She slipped easily into the banter.
“Than you’d give me a failing grade on a pop quiz,” the comedian asked leaning forward on his desk a bit.
“I’m sure we could arrange some extra credit.” The audience went wild, and there were a few wolf whistles.
“You know you’ve got that sexy school teacher thing down right, Madam President, but I have to say that you are the first Head of State I have had on the show who has legs worth looking at.”
Laura was taken aback for a moment. “Thank you, I think.”
“That’s how I knew you were an alien…the legs, that is. I certainly don’t think President Bartlet has legs like that.”
“I don’t know, you’d have to ask Mrs. Bartlet,” she replied with mock innocence.
“Foul ball! Thinking about the Bartlets like that is like thinking about your parents having sex.”
“I’m probably old enough to be your mother and you are flirting with me.”
“But you’re an alien, Laura, that’s different.”
“Where did I leave all those men ready to defend my honor?”
“In orbit? I suppose I should be asking you something about the settlement talks or how your people came here or all that jazz, but what I really want to know is… are you with the Admiral, or with that guy Zarek? Because I have a pool going with the girls in the crew and I think they want whichever one you aren’t actually dating.” There were a few screams from the audience with suggestions as to which she should be with.
“I’m not really dating either one of them,” Laura said, hiding a bit of her discomfort with the question.
“Oh, so you are single. Can I take you up on that offer of extra credit now?”
“Aren’t you married?”
“Details, details…”
**~**~**
CJ jumped as the Marine guard at the door of the White House Situation Room called out “Attention!” and the military officers in the room stood ramrod straight. Even Nancy McNally, who was standing next to her, stood just a little bit taller.
“As you were, people,” the President dismissed as he reached the head of the table.
CJ inwardly winced when she saw that he was in shirtsleeves. It was past ten o’clock and she knew he had been on his way to the Residence.
“Mr. President,” McNally began, “NORAD has reported that the Colonial Fleet has moved from low orbit to a position approximately half way between the Earth and the moon.” The absence of Kate Harper was felt in the room as the National Security Adviser filled in for what would normally be the job of her deputy who was now up in that fleet.
“Have we received any word from the Colonials?” the President asked.
“Most of the embassy staff is with President Roslin in New Jersey.” CJ offered.
“Why is she in New Jersey?”
CJ spoke up, “She’s on Jon Stewart tonight, sir.”
“In six years I’ve never been on The Daily Show. The woman is on the planet for a month and she’s already doing comedy?”
“She’s been trying to counter the public fear. We’ve been advising and encouraging her,” CJ explained.
“There is another issue,” Nancy broke in. “NORAD is also reporting atmospheric incursions by Colonial fighters over New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Seattle, Chicago, and a dozen other US and Canadian cities. By the time the Air Force scrambled fighters, their fighters had broken atmosphere again and were gone.”
“Is there any innocent explanation for that kind of behavior?” the President asked with narrowing eyes.
“Several, but our best guess is that they were dual-purpose reconnaissance flights to do land surveys for potential landing sites.”
“You don’t do that over cities. They don’t make good landing sites. What’s your second best guess?”
“To remind us that our defenses aren’t geared to space combat.” McNally let the implication hang in the air. “The Colonial Fleet’s new position is just enough outside of the planet’s gravity well to make the missile calculations exponentially more difficult should we need to fire upon them.”
CJ concluded, “She’s reminding us that she has the high ground.”
President Bartlet tapped his hand on the table, assimilating the information. “Find someone who isn’t in New Jersey and get an explanation.”
**~**~**
Jed Bartlet came into the bedroom and Abbey was already in bed watching the Daily Show. “She’s good,” Abbey commented as he sat down on top of the covers next to her.
“I saw bits of it earlier when they were playing the history of the Colonials using clips of old Ray Harryhausen movies,” the President said as he took off his tie.
“I thought that it was funny.”
“You have a warped sense of humor.”
“Did you see the bit where Stephen Colbert came on?” she asked curiously.
“How much free time do you think I have?”
“Not enough. Did you see it?”
“No, I was rather busy.”
“He came out and asked her to autograph his copy of Left Behind. And she did!”
Jed raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that the series of books about the end of the world…?”
“Yes.”
“The one about the Antichrist?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think she knew that?”
“I doubt she does anything without knowing precisely what she’s doing.”
**~**~**
Tory Foster had remained behind while the rest of the staff traveled by helicopter with the President. She knew that Bartlet’s people would be sent into a tizzy as soon as they realized what the fleet’s movements meant. Someone had to be in Washington to do the nasty business. It was her job to protect Roslin from this kind of thing, from being the bad guy, so that when the time came to pull back from the brink the President would have the credibility to do so.
She fiddled with the black leather gloves on her hand and looked up at the giant obelisk lit up in the night. There was a light snow falling, and the ice crystals reflected the light and twinkled like falling stars.
In the distance she saw a male figure, his hands buried deep in his pockets. “What took you so long, Josh?”
“I’m not crazy like you, and didn’t want to stand around in a snow storm.”
“Been a long time since I’ve gotten to stand in the snow, but that’s not what I meant.”
“Figuring out what you people mean seems to be a fine art. My boss wants to know why your side has started to make provocative moves.”
“They aren’t provocative if you can’t respond,” the political aide countered.
“What game do you think you're playing?” Josh asked with a raised eyebrow, slightly shocked and exasperated.
“We’re not playing games, Josh. You may think that you have all the time in the world to address our concerns, but we don’t. Your governments can start negotiating in good faith or we will have to take more extreme actions.”
Josh watched her for a moment. “What kind of extreme action?”
She smiled, and didn’t answer his question. “I understand your delegation up in the fleet has been doing good work. I’d hate to see something happen to them. Tell your boss to get off his ass before mine hands it to him.”
Tory walked past him, leaving Josh stunned and standing alone in the snow.
Next Chapter: Part XVI