Chapter Text
I don't own the rights to Battletech and don't claim to, just borrowing the universe for a while. Who actually does own Battletech isn't always necessarily clear, but it's definitely not me!
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"Terraforming isn't a magic trick but a lot of it does involve smoke and mirrors."
Building Better Worlds: The Unofficial History of SLDoME - Niops Free Press, 2890
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Capital City – Niops Association (Niops VII) – 2840
If it had been raining, or snowing, or if he had been running late for his meeting Franklin Hallis would have requisitioned a vehicle to ferry him from SLDF Headquarters to the Association Council Building, seat of government in Niops, but as it was he needed to stretch his legs anyway so he decided to walk.
Although the capital continued to grow in population and geographic size it still wasn't exactly a teeming, sprawling metropolis by any means. Frankly describing it as much of a city at all would still be a bit of an exaggeration, and most of the government buildings were to be found near the centre of town anyway so it wasn't much of a hike in any case, just enough to get the circulation going and take in some fresh air.
There was certainly more traffic on the roads than there used to be, Hallis noted idly as he trudged along the pavement, glad that his new boots were more comfortable than the old ones. If he had known how well-made the new SLDF issue footwear coming out of Comstock was these days he might have dumped his old pair months ago but after you've polished the same pair so many times it was a little hard to let go.
The new uniform was better too. After much deliberation, and more than a little procrastination, General Romanov had finally admitted that the original SLDF pattern uniforms weren't the flawless design classic they were supposed to be and authorised a few changes to be made going forward.
To the untrained eye the new issue jackets weren't actually that much different than the old ones, certainly not different enough to warrant a mass changeover to the new pattern all at once, but the cut more closely resembled that of Terran Hegemony uniforms from before the foundation of the Star League, the rank insignia on them had been made slightly more prominent and the Red Cameron Star of Niops was on full display.
It wasn't quite as stiff and binding to wear with extra layers underneath either, something that was very important when you were outside on Niops VII and you didn't want to have to drag a heavy overcoat with you all the time.
Hallis still actually preferred his old Clan Wolverine issue dress uniform, the one with the even spiffier Prussian Collar and the Sam Brown belt that not only looked good but was practical for hanging your personal weapon, or weapons from, but even if Romanov had liked the look too, which she didn't, it was way too clan-looking to risk wearing it outside the Niops system.
With more people than decade ago, and higher wages thanks to the ongoing economic boom, it wasn't a surprise that there was so much more traffic on the streets, Hallis considered as he waited at a pedestrian crossing near the Planetarium for the lights to change so he could continue his journey.
People he encountered on the way generally fell into three groups based on how they reacted to coming across him, and there were quite a few of them out that day because it was a Saturday and not particularly cold out by Niops VII standards.
The majority were Niops-born civilians that either ignored him completely or at most vaguely registered his military uniform, whereas the smallest group were uniformed military themselves that saluted as they passed him going the other way along the sidewalk, Hallis crisply returning each salute.
The third group were those civilians, presumably of Wolverine origin, that greeted him with 'Khan Hallis' and a nod of recognition, some of those nods verging on a bow even though that certainly wasn't something he ever encouraged.
If people had expected clan culture to die out completely, a puddle less than a hundred-thousand strong immersed in a Terran Hegemony sea, albeit it with some Capellan admixture, they had been proved wrong though not for the reason they might expect.
It wasn't so much a top-down dictate from the Khan or saKhan that Wolverine identity needed to remain, nor even the influence of what had been the Warrior Caste, it was broader than that.
Nicholas Kerensky had ordered the annihilation of Clan Wolverine, the summary execution of any of its warriors that were captured and the sterilisation of its civilians.
If Clan Wolverine ceased to exist then that would be letting Old Nick win, if not in the way he had necessarily desired, and letting that tyrannical, murderous bastard win was simply unacceptable.
In reality of course any Wolverine cultural traits weren't going to end up much as more than a thin veneer plastered over the overwhelming late Star-League era Terran Hegemony culture of Niops eventually and Hallis knew it. After a while it would likely exist as merely a few odd quirks such as referring to military schools as 'Sibling Companies', being more tolerant of settling disputes with your fists than 'civilised' society would usually deem acceptable and of course still having a Khan, even if the role was now essentially honorary.
It was important to still have a Khan just in case they ever returned to Strana Mechty. Somebody had to formally declare that the Trial of Annihilation had failed, and that Clan Wolverine had won in the end before they raised the Wolverine banner over Bearcat once more and then reclaimed their holdings on Circe.
Also, someone had to piss on Nicholas Kerensky's grave. Ideally that person would be named McEvedy but a Robertson or a Hallis would do.
Arriving at the Association Council Offices Hallis returned salutes from the guards outside, the soldiers from the Niops Association Militia assigned to protect the building looking less bored than he might have considering the lack of an actual threat to its inhabitants, and then he entered being greeted by the receptionist.
"Good Afternoon General Hallis, the High Associator hasn't finished his meeting scheduled for before yours but I'll let you know when you can go up" the receptionist told him brightly.
"Thank you, Deborah" Hallis replied. "Working this weekend I see."
"Getting next Wednesday off in lieu" the receptionist replied, smiling. Most Civil Service employees worked a standard Monday to Saturday week but things tended to get busier and less rigid when a new High Associator took over. So much to do in order to get them up to speed.
The receptionist herself would have still likely been in Junior High the last time that had happened, Olson had won his first election in 2825 a couple of years before the SLDF showed up at his doorstep, but older members of staff had the institutional memory to deal with all the temporary chaos and hubbub that accompanied such a change in leadership.
Naturally it still went very much easier on Niops than it tended to do in the Draconis Combine or the Free Worlds League for example. For one thing you didn't have to clean up the remains of the former boss after their assassination, suicide or 'suicide'.
Despite having access to the best medical technology outside of Terra The average life expectancy of rulers of the Successor States was actually rather lower than it was for their subjects, Hallis knew. Hell, people on less developed planets in the periphery probably had a better chance of getting to a hundred than your typical Coordinator, Captain-General or whatever.
A political system that led to a smoother, less violent transfer of power, in this case democracy, didn't necessarily lead to the best person for the job getting it however. Franklin Hallis was of the opinion, one kept to himself naturally, that the new High Associator wasn't up to the job and that if it wasn't for an unlikely happenstance they might not have won the election at all.
An astronomer by background James Murray PhD had failed to gain a majority of the vote in the first round nor anything like it. He had obtained a narrow plurality, getting more votes than anyone else managed in an election where there were several candidates, but not by enough to avoid a second round of voting with only the two candidates who had obtained the most votes in the first round eligible to stand.
Depending on your point of view it was either a system that guaranteed that whoever won in the second round runoff election had the support of more than half the population, and was therefore democratically legitimate, or it was a system that made sure that the most unpopular of the two candidates couldn't become High Associator, but either way it produced a result that the majority were willing to accept as the better outcome.
In both the 2830 and 2835 elections, if not the one in 2825, Giles Olson had actually managed to obtain more than half the vote in the first round of voting which had ended the process there and then with no second round required. That was unusual though, most politicians in the Niops Association just didn't have his level of voter engagement, or frankly his charisma.
Fifty-two percent of those who voted in the second round of voting in the 2840 election had either liked James Murray, or else actively disliked their opponent more, so now he was in charge.
The winning margin was small enough to make Hallis wonder if not for the other James Murray whether the outcome would have been the same.
Given that the majority of candidates were dull technocrats promising to both continue the policies of Giles Olson and maintain the status quo if elected, they had all looked for something to make them stand out a little from the crowd. In the case of former astronomer Councilman James Murray PhD that issue was orbital solar mirrors.
The expeditions to McEvedy's Folly had brought the topic of using such mirrors to warm a planet into the public consciousness on Niops VII. Back in the day the Star League Department of Mega Engineering (SLDoME) had constructed an array of them around the world then known as 'Project Sagittarius Umbrella' to reverse the severe Ice Age that was gradually turning it into a snowball. It would in fact have ended up frozen solid from one pole to the other in only a few more centuries if not for the engineers of SLDoME and their habit of only using dictionaries that had the entry for the word 'Impossible' crossed out.
Some accused the terraforming crews of SLDoME of hubris, or of even playing God. Their usual response to that was, 'God made the universe, but the Department of Mega Engineering made Venus habitable' before getting back to work.
By comparison to reversing an apocalyptic Ice Age on McEvedy's Folly, warming up Niops VII a few degrees would be a piece of cake surely? Not only could they make the planet a more pleasant place to live reflected sunlight beaming down on arable farms and forests could increase grain yields and rates of tree growth. It was an argument that had caught some political traction given that Niops had spacelift capacity to spare, increasingly large-scale asteroid mining to provide the raw materials and the undeniable truth that no matter how high the standard of living got on Niops VII it was no substitute for having a pleasant climate.
Councillor James Murray PhD didn't give a crap about crop yields, or being able to enjoy a barbeque in your back garden without freezing your balls off, he cared about astronomy and hated the notion of honking great orbital mirrors blocking out the view.
Niops being a colony founded expressly for the purpose of astronomical research, and having a population weirdly obsessed with star gazing as a hobby, not just as a profession to boot, Murray's strident opposition to 'Orbital Light Pollution' caught some traction with the electorate, not much but some at least.
Then he was invited to speak about the issue by the news channel who thought that broadcasting a segment that combined politics and astronomy as part of their pre-election coverage might be good for ratings.
The producer knowing little about orbital mirrors had sought out an expert, and when he found one realised he had struck gold, quickly inviting them onto the show as well.
Thus it was that when Councillor James Murray PhD appeared on the news channel to talk about orbital mirrors and his objection to constructing any around Niops VII, he was confronted with a man who, in his youth, had once actually helped construct some of the things elsewhere. Captain James Murray MEng, Star League Navy (Retired) formerly of the Star League Department of Mega Engineering was only too happy to go on television to advocate the use of a well-established and proven terraforming technology that would improve the lives of everyone on the planet.
James Murray, the engineer not the astronomer, had officially retired from active service on his one-hundred-and-fifteenth birthday, although he still worked part time as a consultant because he knew more about the SLDoME tech recovered from McEvedy's Folly than anyone else and he was just old not useless. Famously irascible and short-tempered within certain circles the last time he gave a crap about civility or politesse in his dealings with others Kerensky was still in charge, Aleksandr Kerensky, and given free rein to express his views he proceeded to lecture James Murray, the astronomer not the engineer, about how gosh-darned awesome orbital mirrors were.
James Murray, the engineer not the astronomer, did not of course use the phrase 'gosh-darned'. The phrase he did use had to be bleeped out by the news channel. He was also bleeped out later when he called James Murray, the astronomer not the engineer, a narrow-minded, parochial, luddite mother-funster.
He didn't actually say 'funster' either needless to say.
Eventually James Murray, the astronomer not the engineer, snapped and started yelling at the other James Murray, bawling him out for lacking a soul, saying that every child on Niops should have the right to look up at the stars on a cloudless night and wonder in awe at the majesty of the universe without 'unnecessary orbital junk' getting in the way before launching into a diatribe about how Niops had fallen too deeply under the sway of engineers, bean-counters and military types and how people were losing sight of what the Niops Association was founded to do.
Changing demographics would erode the power and authority of what was effectively the ancien régime over time, but until then they were still living in a society where interfering with people star-gazing was a hot-button political issue, Jenna Romanov had observed to Hallis after the broadcast as polls subsequently indicated a surge of support for the James Murray running for office (they also indicated that quite a few people wished that the other James Murray was running instead, these being mostly SLDF types). In her opinion they were witnessing the last hurrah of the Old Guard as James Murray, the astronomer not the engineer, was suddenly thrust into the limelight as the reactionary champion of the ancient regime.
He wasn't actually that in reality of course. Councillor James Murray PhD was in fact broadly-speaking actually very much in favour of Niops stepping up and restoring civilisation in a galaxy that had gone all to hell since the Terran Hegemony collapsed. His televised rant however struck enough of a chord with enough people that it put him just ahead in the polls as the standard bearer of what some called the 'Great Purpose'.
While it had all made for great ratings, in retrospect putting a fairly strong-willed scientist up against a strong-willed engineer regarding what was a contentious issue had inevitably led to conflict. Scientists and engineers were natural enemies, like Englishmen and Scots, or Scots Highlanders and Scots Lowlanders, or Murrays and other Murrays.
Damn Murrays, they ruined Moray.
"The High Associator will see you now, General Hallis" the receptionist spoke up, breaking Hallis away from his thoughts. "Um… don't mention the desk" she advised awkwardly.
Wondering what exactly she meant by that Hallis made his way up to the High Associator's office, something he had done dozens of times before when it was his turn to brief them on behalf of the Joint Chiefs, and after told to just knock and enter by his secretary sat outside he did so.
At which point the 'desk' thing made perfect sense because newly-elected High Associator James Murray wasn't in fact sat at a desk, he was sat behind a folding-table situated where Giles Olson's very nice desk used to be.
"Good Afternoon, Sir" Hallis announced himself, stopping to salute while waiting for an invitation to sit down. In front of the folding table.
"You're probably wondering about the desk" Murray said, sounding rather aggrieved about the furniture situation judging by his tone of voice.
"I wasn't going to say" Hallis replied honestly, he certainly would have done if not for the warning though.
"Olson took his desk with him" Murray said bitterly. "Private property apparently."
"I see" Hallis replied comprehendingly, it was a very nice piece of furniture after all.
"They're trying to find the old desk that used to be here before he replaced it, the government owned one" Murray told him. "If they can't I'll have to get a new one made" he added with a sigh.
"Oh, I think that went to Admiral Bremman. It's in his office at Navy HQ by the spaceport" Hallis replied, instantly regretting saying it.
"Ah ha!" Murray exclaimed, sitting bolt upright in his chair. "Please tell him I want it brought back" he requested, tone indicating that it was not actually a 'request' so much as a command from on high.
"Will do, Sir" Hallis replied. Jacob was going to be really annoyed about this Hallis knew. The admiral had only gotten the desk because he had always gotten on very well with Giles Olson, they even socialised outside of work Bremman claiming that Olson was a surprisingly good rapper when he had a few drinks in him.
Hallis had never really gotten the 'rap' thing even though it was big on Niops. Listening to a nerd on the radio rhyming about thermodynamics wasn't his idea of a good time. Given him good old fashioned classical dubstep any time.
"Take a seat General, at least Olson left those behind" Murray said, sounding a little happier now he thought he might have a proper desk to sit behind soon. "I thought it might be General Romanov that gave me my first briefing?" he queried.
"General Romanov was injured yesterday morning; she's supposed to stay off her feet for a few days" Hallis explained her absence. That was the reason he was here now instead of at home looking after Judith even though he was supposed to be off duty this weekend. Fortunately Frederick was available to babysit his little sister, the boy had his uses even if he was still almost as such of a sarcastic pain-in-the-ass now as he had been in his teens. "The General offers her sincere apologies for not being able to attend."
"Injured how? Nothing too serious I hope?" Murray asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Running an assault course" Hallis explained, trying not to laugh. "The General doesn't seem to have mentally adjusted to the fact that she is over a hundred years old now and her ability to leap over obstacles isn't what it was when she was only eighty."
"Good grief. I'll have a word with her about that" Murray replied, rolling his eyes. "I know you Terra-born people are long-lived but you're not immortal."
"You're a third-generation Niops citizen yourself I believe?" Hallis noted.
"Third generation astronomer too, although I was the first in the family to go into politics" Murray replied. "But enough about me, I believe you have some updates regarding military deployments and developments?" he asked, looking down at his notes.
Hallis nodded. "The expanded training mission to Illyria progresses according to schedule" he began. "A number of the candidates for mechwarrior training picked out from the ranks of the Palatinate militia show sufficient promise that they should be able to field a combat-effective battlemech lance alongside their tank formations by the end of the year."
"They're using battlemechs captured from the Black Warriors correct?"
"Correct Sir" Hallis confirmed. "We repaired the battle damage they took ahead of receiving the reparation payments from Circinus in order to speed up the process of getting them operationally ready and available to take the field in needed."
"At which point we can withdraw our ongoing commitment there presumably?"
"Yes. It hasn't been too taxing logistically supplying a small expeditionary force in the Palatinate, we already had jumpships operating between Niops and Illyria hauling cargo and people seeking work on Alphard, but we never intended the commitment there to last quite this long. Mostly because we never expected somebody to attack Illyria while we were there, particularly not anyone that was a lot more formidable than your regular band of pirates."
"Very well" Murray replied. "Battlemech production on Alphard progresses as expected?"
"A few teething troubles with some of the plant and machinery, but nothing you wouldn't expect from a new factory that's still ramping up production" Hallis told him. "We're ahead of the game in terms of training mechwarriors on Alphard so while we will want to maintain a garrison of our own there to protect what will increasingly become the industrial heartland of the Hegemony, we can restrict that to no more than regimental size rather than up it to a full brigade as would have been necessary otherwise."
"I was under the impression that most of the Alphard Militia is still infantry and that will remain the case even once they start receiving battlemechs?" Murray responded quizzically.
"If fighting a defensive battle and properly dug in infantry shouldn't be underestimated Sir, but in any case our long-term plans for the various planetary militias don't just revolve around handing them a few mechs" Hallis replied. "We're already looking into putting the old Ballista self-propelled-gun into large-scale production to give the planetary guard units some useful artillery support and the Magistracy would be only too happy to sell us more Manticore tanks if there's room in the budget to push some more in the direction of the militias."
The High Associator frowned. "I thought we were already in the process of developing indigenous tank production?" he queried. "Why import them rather than simply make more for the militias?"
Hallis raised his eyebrows. "I'm sorry Sir, I thought you knew about the decision to manufacture the Von Luckner instead of the Manticore. It was featured prominently in the briefing documentation you were sent when you won the election."
"I'm afraid I'm still working my way through a mountain of paperwork" Murray replied, truthfully although he had opted to read it in a different order than the one suggested by his staff.
"Oh, well we were going to put the Manticore into production to save importing them from the Magistracy, but the opportunity to obtain a license to manufacture the Von Luckner instead for absolute peanuts came up so we jumped at it" Hallis told him. "The company that makes them, or should I say made them, HartfordCo Industries, just had their factory on Bryant levelled, and given their financial situation, not to mention the extreme weather conditions prevalent on the planet, they're in no position to rebuild."
"Bryant?" Murray repeated. "Isn't that the planet where Amaris destroyed the Storm Inhibitors?"
"Yes Sir" Hallis confirmed. "Without SLDoME around to fix them the planet's been gradually falling to wrack and ruin ever since" he said. "After we heard about their factory being totalled we sent HartfordCo an offer to buy a license to produce the Von Luckner and after accusing us of being vultures they agreed. Bryant is under occupation by the Capellan Confederation at present, but as we don't currently have beef with them they didn't try and block the deal."
Murray nodded his understanding. Bryant was a former world of the Terran Hegemony and hence deemed to be 'under occupation' according to Niops even if the Capellan's might not see it that way.
It was strange how the subject of orbital mirrors kept coming up in his life though, the Storm Inhibitors on, or rather over Bryant being exactly that. When extreme weather events just as hurricanes formed they would be disrupted by carefully aimed beams of reflected sunlight to dissipate them, it being just another SLDoME trick to tame planets that would otherwise be unsuitable for colonisation.
"Our armoured units operate a mix of the Von Luckner and Manticore tanks, the former is most effective at short-range engagements, the latter at long ranges so they complement each other very well" Hallis explained. "If our tank units on Illyria had fielded such a mix, instead of just the Manticore alone, it would have likely led to a quicker victory with reduced losses. If we were forced to only field one design it would be the Manticore incidentally, it's a better all-rounder, but since we can buy those from the Magistracy, while now making the Von Luckner ourselves, we don't have to compromise."
"I assume High Associator Olson signed off on all of this?"
"Yes Sir, not long before he left office. It was all done in a rush though so it's not surprising you hadn't heard given how busy you were with the election" Hallis replied. "It was definitely one of those situations where we had to jump in and grasp the opportunity quickly before someone else might have. As I said before, we really did get the license from HartfordCo for absolute peanuts, it was even more of a steal than when we got the license to produce the Thug after Maltex Corporation had their own factory blitzed."
Murray leaned forward in his chair. "Forgive me General Hallis, but if I recall correctly one of the selling points in the militaries proposal to build a factory producing the Manticore was that it presented an opportunity to repurpose surplus fusion power-plants stripped out from Stingray aerospace fighters imported from the Free Worlds League. Will that also be the case for the Von Luckner?"
"No" Hallis admitted. "The Von Luckner utilises a class 225 Standard Fusion Engine rather than the 240SFE powerplant of the Stingray and Manticore, however by the time the factory is complete we plan to have started importing Sabre light aerospace fighters from the Magistracy which do use a class 225 SFE so we'll modify those to power the Von Luckner instead."
"It's that easy?"
"Well, the VOX 225 engine in a Von Lucker isn't exactly the same shape and size as the Nissan 225 in a Sabre, but since we're making our own Von Luckner tanks we'll just change the design of the engine compartment to suit" Hallis responded. "We were going to do the same with our version of the Manticore, modify the design slightly to carry a VOX240a instead of the regular Pitban 240."
"I suppose when you get right down to it they're all just fusion reactors, it's just what the machine they're installed inside does with the power they generate that changes whether they're an aerospace fighter, a tank or a battlemech" Murray reasoned.
"Very true. We actually use a few old Wasp powerplants as emergency generators in our bunker complex on Reykjanes Island" Hallis replied. "For what it's worth, in the longer term I do still have a plan for the surplus engines from the Stingray, they won't go to waste. I'm hoping we'll eventually get a license to produce the Schrek PPC carrier made by Aldis Industries, they also use a 240SFE powerplant, although since Aldis is safely headquartered on Terra we're unlikely to get the license at the bargain price we did other machines."
Importing the Stingray and eventually the Sabre with a standard-fusion-engine already installed by the manufacturer, and then immediately switching those engines out for superior Extra-Light Fusion Engines to turn them into 'Royal' equivalent aerospace fighter, would have been a terrible waste of money if those surplus engines weren't going to be re-purposed. As it was if those engines were still going to be gainfully employed then the bean-counters and bureaucrats were generally willing to accept the argument made by the military as to why it was a good idea to go about it this way.
It wasn't a secret that Niops was importing the Stingray from the Free Worlds League, and it wouldn't be a secret when they started importing the Sabre from the Magistracy of Canopus either, what was going to be a secret was that those aerospace fighters in Niops service were going to be much better than the regular models of each type in service elsewhere.
The advanced Extralight Fusion Engines the upgraded fighters would require would have been a problem to put into production if not for the fact that Niops already had a couple of production lines for such engines crated up in storage. Retooling the machinery that used to produce the XL engines for the Mercury II and Stag II was a lot easier than having to create whole new manufacturing capability completely from scratch, and it was inordinately quicker than having to wait for Project Workshop time to be freed up.
The line that used to make the engine for the Pulverizer was already in the process of being re-tooled to make the powerplant for the Thug instead. Those machines were going to be hand made in Project Workshops as and when they were available, rather than put into mass production, although the definition of 'hand made' when it came to high-tech artisanal production in a Project Workshop was a slight misnomer.
Especially with the engine being made in a separate facility a Project Workshop could 'hand build' an assault mech around an endo-steel frame, itself also made elsewhere, somewhat faster than a bunch of guys in a garage could have managed.
Eventually when he had a Project Workshop of his very own working for the army full-time Hallis was aiming towards round-the clock production of 'hand-built' assault mechs, not just the Thug but also the King Crab if they could get the license. The Devastator and the Rifleman II wouldn't need a license, nobody was making them anyway and as far as Hallis was concerned the designs were SLDF/Hegemony property in any case.
"I believe that construction of the dropship maintenance facility has begun?" Murray checked.
"Yes Sir, once completed the Alliance Station now being assembled in orbit will not only be able to service our existing dropship fleet but we'll be able to put the CargoKing into production" Hallis confirmed. "It's coming at a useful moment, we're starting to suffer from a shortage of available cargo transportation as our interstellar trade increases and they're automated enough not to put as much of a strain on our labour resources as older types such as the Mule would. The military model, the CargoMaster, will also help us out a lot logistically as the Hegemony expands."
"Admiral Bremman is pleased I'm sure" Murray surmised.
"He is, Sir" Hallis replied. "Though I don't think he'll be happy until we get the first orbital shipyard built over Niops VIII, or maybe not even until the second over Niops IX."
Murray's eye twitched. "By 'Niops VIII' and 'Niops IX' I assume you mean the astronomical objects known as Elizabeth as Helena which are situated in the Niops asteroid belt?" he asked coldly.
"Yes" Hallis replied, slightly vexed by the man's reaction and manner.
"Those are Dwarf Planets, merely large asteroids" the High Associator stated firmly. "As such they are not to be designated as Niops VIII and IX."
Hallis raised his eyebrows. "But they're actually round and both well over fifteen-hundred klicks in diameter, Helena is closer to two-thousand..."
"Nevertheless, they are Dwarf Planets according to the official criteria established for such by the Niops Astronomical Union" Murray told him sternly, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I suppose you're one of those people that thinks Pluto in the Sol system is a planet too?" he asked sarcastically.
"Well, it is isn't it?" Hallis replied, confused.
The High Associator stared at him. "GET OUT AND DON'T COME BACK!" he bellowed, jumping to his feet and pointing at the door.
Since it was a direct order General Frankin Hallis immediately shot out of his chair to comply even if the entire situation was insane as far as he was concerned.
"No, wait" the High Associator said more quietly, sitting back down. "Get out and come back with my goddamn desk" he corrected himself.
Later, while Franklin Hallis explained how his day went to his wife back at home Barbara had stared at him. "You called Pluto a planet?" she asked him in horror, staring at her husband aghast and making him wonder if he was the mad one or if everyone born in this system was completely nuts.
