MISC: The Girl Who Saved The World Part 43

[George Phillies]

Readers will note that I re-sorted chapters a bit, so some of you may 
have seen some of this before. I got home, was seriously down with the 
flu for a week, had major catchup to do, and will now be back.  In 
between I finished a 50,000 word equivalent scientific paper, at least 
to the almost final draft stage.

Where was this meeting going, Buncombe wondered? The Ambassadors had met 
often enough that most of them, most of the time, did not feel obliged 
to insult each other.  Positions of the Great Powers on ownership of the 
Namestone were hardly state secrets, at least among the powers that 
believed that the Namestone existed.  The Celestial Republic of Prince 
Wang was by no means convinced that there actually was a Namestone. 
After all, if it existed, the Martyr would undoubtedly have given it to 
the Perfect Man, the Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, Lord of All the 
Earth, when the Martyr first arrived on Earth three millennia ago, and 
he had not done so. The IncoAztecan Speaker for the First Speaker 
doubtless agreed with the Celestial Republic’s Ambassador, except of 
course that the Martyr would undoubtedly have given the Namestone to the 
First Speaker, the Living Sun.

“General aus und zu Dreikirch, is there any progress to report? I know 
there is also an agenda, but first things first.” Holmgren directed his 
attention to the chief of the League Secret Political Police, who looked 
even more bedraggled than his audience. He had been awake for almost two 
days, ever since the universal solar eclipse began.

“We are pursuing every lead,” Dreikirch answered, his bushy grey 
mustache all aquiver. “There has been an extremely thorough search for 
persona fitting Eclipse’s description.  The garb we saw on video is 
registered with Niederhof’s on the Vienna Ringstrasse, but as you know 
absolutely no one has ever penetrated Niederhof’s security arrangements 
to see the persona behind the garb.  Tomorrow their lead window display 
will be replicas of Eclipse’s three garbs -- yes, she has three of them 
-- and ‘Niederhof, supplier of fine garb to the Glorious Bearer of the 
Holy Namestone’ will be their selling point.  I infer that the customer 
paid in gold thalers that were promptly melted down and reminted, so 
there is no DNA trace.

“Other than that, there is no record whatsoever.  My staff agrees that 
Eclipse is a woman, not too advanced in years, likely late 20s, and 
rigorously trained.  Who is behind her?  There must have been a huge 
support team, but they remain in the shadows. I have no more to report.”

  “Ah, yes,” Holmgren said, “the Agenda.  As we are now in Regular 
Order, there is a Speaking Stone, and an order of speaking. The first 
issue is the complaint, actually, complaints, about the League Strike 
Force and its actions on Atlanticea. The speaking order is the order in 
which I received complaints, followed by standard rules. Several of you 
have made emphatically clear that you object to treating these issues in 
closed session, so we are not closed. We begin with traditional short 
opening remarks and then turn to substantive issues. Ambassador
Moeller, I believe you speak first.”

Moeller straightened his tie. “The Supreme Warlord of All the Germans is 
most concerned with the lack of properly aggressive action by the League 
Elite Persona Brigade.  The moment that the Bearer refused to hand over 
the Namestone, the Bearer should have been summarily executed, without 
giving her any warning or any further argument.  League resolutions, 
binding on every person in the world, make clear that it is entirely and 
most strictly forbidden for any private person to retain custody of the 
Namestone. Equally, League Resolutions, binding on every person in the 
world, make clear that it is entirely and most strictly forbidden for 
any private person to dispute the right of the League to take possession 
of the Holy Namestone for the benefit of all humanity.”

Buncombe pulled from one of the desk drawers at his side a small glass 
pyramid and set it on the table in front of him.  You won’t, he thought, 
make those claims without a vigorous objection. He was slightly 
surprised when Featherstonehaugh put a similar pyramid on his section of 
the desk. “However, the Bearer was not summarily executed. It is 
therefore the irrefutable opinion of the Supreme Warlord that the 
leadership of the Elite Brigade should be replaced, the Brigade being 
given new, competent, and therefore of course necessarily Prussian 
leadership.” Valkyria’s face stiffened. Several more pyramids appeared 
on desks.

“We are further particularly concerned that large numbers of persons 
around the world watched this Eclipse persona while she defied the 
entire League and thus the collective wisdom of all mankind. The notion 
that single individuals are entitled to disobey, no, even to question 
the directives of their superiors is entirely and most rigorously 
unacceptable.  That position must be categorically rejected by this 
Executive and by extension by all civilized people. Failure to reject 
this notion will leads to riots, disorders, strikes, anarchism, and 
independent thinking, an intolerable state of affairs that must be put 
down like the mad dog that it is.

“Finally,” Moeller said, “the Supreme Warlord of all the Germans notes 
that League Resolutions make it explicitly clear that it is the separate 
and overriding duty of every Great Power to make every effort to arrest 
and capture the Bearer and obtain for the benefit of the League of 
Nations the Key to Paradise, the Holy Namestone. Accordingly, the 
Supreme Warlord has ordered and directed that the German Elite Persona 
Team is to move immediately to wherever in the world the Bearer is 
found, there to incapacitate her and take control of the Namestone. 
There is of course always a hazard in operations of this type that other 
parties will be  slightly injured or that there will be some minor 
incidental damage to property. Such costs are appropriately born by the 
country in which the damage takes place, because if that country had 
acted in an appropriate and rapid manner, the Bearer would have been 
captured before the Imperial German Elite Persona Team could have 
deployed to the scene to take command of the Namestone for the benefit 
of all humanity.” Additional pyramids appeared on various desks. Moeller 
handed the Speaking Stone to Lord Smoking Frog.

“I bring you Greetings from the One World, the Six Regions, and the Land 
of the Obsidian Hummingbird. The First Speaker, the Living Sun, notes 
that the Bearer did not immediately comply with the direct and explicit 
orders of Brigade Leader Valkyria. The First Speaker, the Living Sun, is 
most concerned that Miss Eclipse’s depraved behavior will serve as an 
ill example for the piously faithful and diligently industrious workers 
and peasants of the One World,” Lord Smoking Frog said. “Those people 
are all wonderful citizens of our Empire, but like all people other than 
the Living Sun they are at risk of being led astray by malevolent 
foreign interests. This risk must be eliminated as rapidly and 
diligently as possible.

“Furthermore, the Assembly of the Tlatoani and the Council of the Realm 
are united in insisting that in the face of a League Resolution this 
Eclipse person owed instant obedience to Commandant Valkyria. That is 
the way it is in all well-ruled countries.  Those who lead direct. 
Those who follow obey without question, hesitation, or thought. When 
Eclipse was seen not to obey, she set the example that disobedience can 
ever be a valid option, which of course it is not. At the first moment 
that she refused to obey, she should have been struck dead.  Better, of 
course, she should have been rendered unconscous, separated from the 
Namestone, and then she should have been tortured to death.  Slowly. 
Her agony and death would then have sent a clear message on the virtue 
and correctness of that unthinking obedience that is the true strength 
of all civilized lands. Therefore, we believe a Special Commission 
should immediately be appointed to deal with the most important of all 
questions, choosing for Miss Eclipse the most painful and terrifying 
possible form of execution, following which her still-beating heart 
should be offered up to Witchywolves.