Summer Planets by A. T. Nager (great YA SF novel a teenager age 19)

Page 26.

19. Raskia

Cyrus Mbe was starting to grow desperate, fighting for his political and maybe soon his blood life. He’d never realized how alone a lifetime of climbing the ranks at any cost had left him.

“Mr. Chairman, the Delegate from Mercury Free Port City pleads that, on behalf of the people of the Galaxy, he be permitted to speak on the matter of the Bread Fleet.”

Mbe’s secretary was reading the plea before the packed Assembly Hall.

“No,” a cynical voice interrupted from Raskia. “Just on behalf of the Mercurians.”

Mbe wiped the palms of his hands with his handkerchief, under the podium where no one should see, so that they wouldn’t know he was frightened and nervous.

Malecan Bohr deliberated. He had to. He was new, and he did not want to make any mistakes. Mbe saw him reading from the Orders of Assembly. Oh god. Mbe himself had been instrumental in seeing a ridiculously incompetent figure elected, because in a showdown between Mercury and Raskia, where hopefully Mercury was the more powerful in the Hall, there was no place for a strong neutral chairman who might bend either way. Now he was apprehensive. He began to feel the battle was impossible to win.

True to expectations, Bohr asked the question that should be asked according to prescribed form, but which had been voted out years before: “Are there any objections to our hearing Mr. Mbe?”

YES YES YES YES YES YES

YES YES

The stars above shone unperturbed: The eyes that knew, and were not touched. The cold eyes of the Universe.

From all over the Assembly House the shouting rang out. A pulsing chant.

Ankh, Ankh, Ankh…

Cyrus could see the stony faced Raskians’ eyes filled with gloating that their will was being carried out for them by these suicidal, sectarian fools. He’d sacrificed Fallon, and he’d sent Bowman to Procyon as an admiral to try and save the fleet and the whole situation.

No cost was too great now to save Mercury FPC. What had to be done had to be done.

Poor Bowman. Poor Fallon.

Thank you for reading. If you love it, tell your friends. Please post a favorable review at Amazon, Good Reads, and other online resources. If you want to thank the author, you may also buy a copy for the low price of a cup of coffee. It's called Read-a-Latte: similar (or lower) price as a latte at your favorite coffeeshop, but the book lasts forever while the beverage is quickly gone. Thank you (JTC).

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