The Solution (2nd Edition)

Michelle

Due to a faint crackle on the com-line, Damon asked after his caller again.

    "Maggie? Are, you, with us...?"

    "Yes, Damon-saweetie, I'm here," the woman replied in a deep southern accent.

    "Okay, good, and where exactly are you com-linkin' from?"

    "Damon, sir, I'm linkin' from Atlanta, Georgia, and what I gotta say on The Solution is this: ain't nobody in the ATL, or anywhere else, wanna be a part of this Star Wars craziness!"

    Dang.

    Mikey wasn't with me to reel, so I did so on his behalf. Maggie clearly had no inner geek, and didn't know the distinction between Rodenberry's Trek, and Lucas's Wars. Nevertheless, mindless Maggie yapped on. "No disrespect, Damon, but I feel Xen Lai needs to git back up behin' dat Great Wall o' China!"

    "...O-Okay, Maggie, thank you," Damon stammered.

    Just watching it unfold was painful and it was highly likely Damon had received a desperate mind-message from his production team. "Folks, for now," he paused, "I think we'll skip the remaining public links.

    "Ahh, let's go straight to my very last guest on private-link, who's been patiently waintin'... Ladies and gentlemen, Robin Albers of Green Justice!

    "Robin, you must be there..."

    "...Mr. Weaver, of course I am," the feline purred, as her hard face materialized onto Damon's studio holoscreen. "There was no way I was going to miss this."

    "Great!" he boomed. "Now, Robin, to my surprise, you've made it publicly known that your organization is no fan of Xen Lai's, despite his mitigation accomplishments in China. Why?"

    "Indeed, his green schemes have been impressive," Robin began. "And it would appear the self-rehabilitated sadist can do anything, right? But for someone like myself with a little more foresight than most, I guessed long ago that Xen Lai only created them to soften up China - soften them up for what he really wanted to politically implement, his orbital program. Damon, no one country should be able to propose such an idea in a complex world dealing with destabilization. It will cause mass conflict. Moreover, it should have been internationally conceived, not nationally inseminated at a summit, and the UN should have made sure they knew what he wanted to share before it was allowed to go ahead."

    "So, Robin, I guess if you were eligible to vote, yours would be a negative one?"

    "Ian, without a shadow of doubt," Robin grumbled. "Xen Lai seeks selfish glory, nothing else, and doesn't care who he might endanger or slaughter in the process. Plus, he's a politician, so he'll eventually fail us. They're all just corporate administrators masquerading as public servants, elected by the ignorant, and only answerable to the frauds of the global banking cartels - all of whom I'm sure will have their fingers in The Solution pie if it gets baked! I mean, come on Damon, the macroscopic scale of what he's proposing would be a bigger undertaking than the entirety of all the world's wars! It's trying to achieve the absolute impossible! Plus, shouldn't eradicating world hunger, poverty, and conserving green resources be The Solution? Rather than a pointless, orbital mass exodus?!
    "Seriously, what do you think of him? Actually, let's cut the crap. I've got a better question, Damon. How much do you think he weighs, eh?"

    "Pardon, Robin?"

    "You heard me just fine. The link didn't glitch. How much do you think he weighs?"

    "Robin, I haven't the slightest clue, but why?"

    "Just have a guess, come on, humor me."

    I'd held my breath where I sat. I knew Robin was about to lash out.

    "...Okay, Robin, I'd guess Xen Lai is maybe, one hundred and sixty, to, one hundred and seventy pounds, give or take..."

    "Well then, Damon, that would make Xen Lai roughly a hundred and sixty-five pounds of gutless man meat."

    A ghastly gasp escaped me; wisped across the BTV technology plain; and caught the attention of Charlie. Naturally, he'd moved in on my desk area with pace, but I was faster in temporarily disabling my holoscreen. Luckily, he didn't get the chance to see what I was watching, and frustrated, spirited away with a turned-back head and watching eyes. After he'd returned to his pack of wolves and vipers, I'd resumed Damon's show.

    "Damon, as far as I'm concerned, only a coward goes about presenting such a thing the way Xen did."

    "Robin. I'm sure people wanna know why you're so hard?" Damon then asked, with a hand at his mouth.

    "Ian, I need to be hard for the overall cause," she'd explained. "The reason I've got my following isn't because I'm a soft little thing who's nice and asks easy questions. It's because I'm predatory in asking and solving the hard ones. Ultimately, a person needs to make the simple choice in life, like I did long ago. Either you're a feline. Or you're a gazelle. And, just in case folks don't know, I'm the most ruthless breed of lioness there is. Lastly, know that I'll never concern myself with the weak-minded opinions of springbok or sheep."

    Along with members of Damon's audience, my eyes boggled. Some of the audience even recoiled in their chairs and bit at lips - the same as Knox, Vivienne, and Jayden did from the comfort of Damon's celebrity couch.

    Clearly, we were all uncomfortable by Robin's approach, and shocked that she'd managed to take control of the interview conversation. But, as her image fizzled away, Damon smiled off the hijacking and tried to conclude on a positive note by saying his final thought. He looked away from the faceless studio holoscreen. "...Well folks, we've had a nice variation of opinions on The Solution Program Proposal. They might just help determine how you'll vote. Either way, I'm sure it's all gonna continue to get far more complicated before anyone jettisons anywhere."

    Damon Weaver was right, and I'd felt pretty sure that all would know it too. So, I headed back into the lavatory cubicle on the sixth floor, instead of helplessly remaining at my desk. I did what I could, and updated the trio, again. Hopefully, Chon, Sarah or Mikey could relay Alber's interview hostility onto Xen, so that he might better prepare for when he and the lioness met in their next, inevitable, encounter.

End of Chapter 12