The Mission From Mars-Thomas C. Wilson

“The chair recognizes the Honorable Senator Thomas C. Williams.”

It took four days to rally some support for the space bill, but Williams had almost all the votes necessary to guarantee the passage of the bill. He made assurances that the military would be present in order to protect the crew in the event there could be trouble. Now it was time for him to give a speech to convince any of the hold out votes and also get national attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen. Honorable members of the Senate. As you know, I am a man who has championed the recent number of bills that have been proposed before this august body on the issue of space exploration. To date, we have sent satellites to orbit our planet. We have begun to survey the universe around us. Now we have the opportunity to make history once again. Red Rock Facility for Industrial Sciences has developed a spaceship for the use of space exploration. More importantly, this ship has been prepared for a historic trip from our planet of Mars to the old home world of Earth.

“Our Founders had said that when we first colonized this planet, we were writing a new chapter in the history of humanity. Now, we can write another new chapter. By being able to travel from one planet to another, we will have done more for our civilization than any of our predecessors could have possibly thought. I call on all of you to vote in favor of the bill before you. By giving the Industrial Sciences the funding they are asking for, we are making history. We will be part of a moment designed for everyone. A vote for this bill is a vote for history.”

The applause from the gallery was a nice touch. Williams looked up at the crowd and watched them rise. From where he stood, he could see with his peripheral vision the entire Senate rise and applaud as well. Williams went back to his seat and waited to see if anyone else would try to give a speech to deny the passage of this bill. The mood of the room was tense.

The Speaker stood and called for a vote. The bill needed to have twenty six of the fifty members to pass, but Williams wanted more than that. A higher number of votes would guarantee any person who would speak out against this to be anti national. The clock above the Speaker’s chair shoed fifteen minutes. It began to tick down. Williams took his voting key and went up to the voting box. He inserted the key and pressed the green button. A number of other Senators did the same.

The results board showed the numbers going up. Yea had already garnered fifteen votes. Nay had three. After five minutes, Yea had twenty eight. Nay had seven. The bill was going to pass. Williams had seen things like this before. While the Senators had fifteen minutes to vote, the votes were not finalized until after the fifteen minutes were up. So, if someone had second thoughts, they could change their vote. Ten minutes were gone and the vote looked pretty good. Yea had forty one. Nay was down to three votes. The remaining seven votes were probably hold outs in case things got very tense. Four minutes left and Nay was down to one vote. Three minutes remained and Yea had forty eight votes. Two minutes and Nay was still at one. As the final minute ticked away, Williams leaned back in hi chair and smiled. The clock hit zero.

The Speaker rose and said, “The final vote is in. In regards to the proposed bill for the Red Rock Facility for Industrial Sciences to receive the amount of three million dollars, with the express use of exploring space and sending a manned space vessel to the planet Earth, the Senate votes as follows: Yea, fifty votes. Nay, zero votes. The bill passes unanimously.”

Once again, the applause from the gallery was thunderous. The first part of the mission was complete. Now it was up for Mentor to get the job done.