Chapter 4

Alice Times

*Newsflash*

Last weekthe Minister of Education Lionel Allen Richards of the Lagrange 2 O’Neill habitat colony Alice announced the unconditional surrender of the Aquitna ship. He humbly granted much of the credit for the defeat of the attacker to his first officer, the former American Major Ansel Moore.

The minister has only today explained how it was achieved.

In an extraordinary act of bravery, the Major lead a fleet of Stinger attack ships—the remainders of the Night Stalker fleet that survived both the Colony Wars and the devastation of the AmerCan habitat—out into open space in full sight of the IndiaBeam weapon. They did this to extend the Global Gestalt Grid’s projection capability as part of his battle strategy.

For this act of bravery, Major Moore was elevated to the rank of general. The Scots mostly survived the devastation with instincts genetically honed by centuries of struggle in the Highlands. In thanks, they have granted the general the right to carry the claymore sword of William Wallace.

Due to its great size, he has loaned it back to the on-station museum, carrying his US Marine Corps sword instead.

The extension of the G-Cube projected onto the Aquitna’s sensors an image of a Colony War-era ARC-ship. The sudden appearance of the ship led the Aquitna to fire three of their missiles at it in rapid succession. By placing the projected ship at a precise position off the moon’s edge, the Minister caused the force-balancing rear-firing projectiles from the Aquitna ship to launch toward the asteroid belt where it impacted the asteroid Ceres. The damage to the final home of France was extreme.

Today Minister Richards has announced the complete surrender of the remainder of the French nation. A rescue mission to Ceres has been mounted but no survivors are expected to be found other than the small crew aboard the attack ship.

Those who ordered the attack had named themselves after Eleanor of Aquitaine who was said to be ruthless in her efforts to disrupt the English throne over a thousand years ago.

The French-English wars—on-going since the days of the Norman Conquest in 1066 even before Eleanor’s day—have been officially and finally declared as won, with England victorious. Salvage crews are already working on Cheshire and Dormouse and have located survivors in a number of emergency compartments.

During his coronation speech, Education Minister Lionel Richards, now popularly hailed as King Richards the Lion—with his lovely fiancé Katrain at his side, named for the star of an old flat-film actress Katherine (last name lost) who played Eleanor of Aquitaine at one time—(holo of the handsome couple g-cubed here), the King declared it a “fair trade” though declined to explain further precisely what was traded for what.

In unrelated news, King Richards has issued an order reverting the official language of the remaining citizens of England back to its original tongue. The Combined Academic Council is distributing hypno doses of Elizabethan English to overwrite the colony’s Manderanto conditioning.

Please be sure to download your dose as all reports will be only in English as of midnight tonight, Greenwich Mean Time.

Next, over in sports, zero-g cricketer Betsy Holmann…