Despair on Old Earth

Suddenly Britt’s videophone came on and a man with a French accent said, "Prezeedent Brittingham?" Britt jerked his head toward the phone. It hadn't made a sound to alert him that anyone was calling, but someone was there! On the screen was a black man with very short hair. The top part of a silver uniform with a high red collar was visible. Behind one shoulder could be seen a woman with wavy black hair and an olive complexion in front of a cream colored wall. Behind the other shoulder was the top of another woman's head. She was a blonde. The black man introduced himself. "I am Jaques Frémont of zee Parnassun Military Combine, Deveesion Nouveau Francais. Are you Prezeedent Brittingham ? " "Yes, I am! Are you the commander of the spacecraft that appeared in our solar system yesterday without asking permission?” Captain Frémont chuckled and said, "Deed we need permeession? Pardon. I thought zees was a free solar seestem." "There's protocol everywhere, " Britt reminded him. "You should have known that, especially as several attempts were made to contact you.” "Oui.., yes, but you yourself never attempted to contact us and our beezness eez weeth you and your vice prezeedent." "Youtve no 'beezness' with anyone on this planet unless you go through proper channels.” Captain Frémont chuckled again and said, "Zat takes too much time. Eenyway, zeense I have your attenzion, I weel ask zees: have you solved zee murder yet?" "Hell, no," Britt said, then mimicked him, “we have not solved zee murder yet." Frémont 's voice became hard: "Vy not?" Jason dashed behind Britt’s desk, stuck his face in front of Britt’s and claimed, "I can do it by the end of next. week, if I'm allowed.” Britt pushed Jason out of the way, growling, "Stay out of this, Cane! It's none of your business!" "Au contraire, monsieur. Eet eez heez beezness ! Eet eez ze beezness of everyone on OId Earth because eef you don't have a good rrreason for not having solved eet, we may puneesh all of you . " Goldblatt and Ken exchanged shocked glances and Britt’s face reddened with rage. "Are you threatening us?” Captain Frémont chuckled again. "Not yet. So, vy have you not solved zee murder?" The two women behind him looked at each other, the tall one obviously smiling. Britt said, "The killer left the country, so he’s not in my jurisdiction. Not that that's any of your concern!” "And yet, someone just told me he could solve zee murder. Was zat Jason Cane? " The two women gave each other a thumbs up. "Cane is insane! " Britt declared "He can’t solve a murder! Hell, it’s all he can do to put his pants on!" Jason pushed Britt, swivel chair and all, out of the way. Ken pulled his stun gun and aimed it at Jason, who stood before Britt’s videophone, saying, "Don't believe anything president Brittingham says! He just suffered a severe head injury and it's affecting his thinking!!r "Stun him!" Britt commanded Ken. Ken said, “Move away from the president, Jason. I don’t want to have to use this.” Jason stepped away. "Monsieur Prezeedent, you obviously need help catching zee keeller. I have two fine detecteeves aboard my sheep, brought here especially for zat purpose. I am sending zem down and you weel do everyzing in your power Lo help zem." "The hell I will!" Brit.t exploded. "You’re trespassing in our air space and we have a defense system that can deal with intruders!” "I know exactly vere zat eez," Captain Frémont informed him, pushing a button somewhere off-screen. "Eet eez now useless. I weel send zee detecteeves unless you steell object." "Ken," Britt said, "call the Orbital Defense Command and tell them to get rid of the invaders. They're already on red alert.” Ken punched the number on his wrist phone. “I can assure you zey won”t answer,” Frémont t assured them, which did anything but. "Zey have no power for zeir weapons. Shall I send down zee detecteeves now?" "If you send anyone down here against our wishes," Britt blustered, "they will immediately be stunned and imprisoned!" "You had better show zeem every courtesy, or eet weel be very bad for you. I can stop all power from functioning all over your country. Just. so you believe me, I weel shut off all power een Capeetal Ceety for about five meenutes. Zere won't even be back-up power. " Jason jumped in front of the screen again, saying. "please don't do that, Captain Frémont! After Dana was shot, I had her cloned to keep her life going. Her clone is still developing at a local hospital. " "Veech hospital?" "New Mount Carmel," Jason enunciated slowly, to be certain it. was understood. "It is located on…” "I have eet rrright here. Our ambassadors were good about keeping zee maps updated. Au revoir." The screen went blank, then the light above Britt’s desk went out. He tried to use his remote key !o lock his door. Nothing happened. "Androidavis can fix this," he said, reaching for the keypad on his phone. It didn’t work, either. He then tried his wrist phone, with no results. “what the... Cane, how are they doing this?" "I wish I knew," Jason replied with a shrug. "If it was just a matter of shutting down the power stations, I could figure it out, but the wrist phones work by satellite and the Parnassuns seem to have such pinpoint control of the process that they can choose which places get power." Colonel Goldblatt remarked, "What's the big deal? It is still daylight. " Britt glared at him, saying, "There's more than one hospital in this city, Private Goldblatt!" While Goldblat. winced, Jason added, “Right and five minutes without power can be fatal to patients on appointed that the Parnassuns would resort could cause collateral casualties." Goldblatt predicted, "You'll be more disappointed in ‘em after they send their detectives here and I whoop their asses.” Jason warned him, "Don’t even try it or you’re the only ass that will get whooped." Professor Wilder rolled his eyes and said, “Don’t you two start again."