Read Online Episode VI: Beta Test by Ben Winston - Free Book Online Page B

political donations and gifts of all types were considered bribes and would be treated as such. A political candidate had a set amount of money to spend for their campaign. That amount was the same for all others running for the same office. Personal wealth, if they had any, would not be allowed to be used for election purposes.
    All in all, her address to the UN took the better part of three hours. Many of the broadcast services tried to block the transmissions, but couldn't. Even when the cameramen were taken out of the UN assembly area, the broadcast continued as if they were still in place.
    By the time Ambassador Gomez finished her speech, there was a lot of grumbling from the assembled dignitaries. However, the Secretary General actually stood and began clapping. Two or three other Ambassadors also applauded her speech, but for the most part, the rest of the delegates were not happy that their people now knew what was being offered to them. Basically, the cat was out of the bag, and no matter how much the powers that be tried to kill it, the people of the world knew that the Alliance was there to stay, and that the Alliance was there for them.
    Several resolutions were quickly passed in several countries banning the Alliance medical facilities and making it illegal for anyone to request assistance from them. That sparked several riots as thousands of people ignored the law and requested the aid that had been offered them.
    Unofficial polls on the internet showed that most world leaders' popularity had reached all-time lows, as they refused to accept the Alliance offer. Most cited the fact that they would not disband their military and leave themselves or their people open to attack or invasion by either other countries, or by the Alliance itself.
    No one believed the Alliance would invade the planet simply because it was made very clear to everyone that if that had been their intention, it would have already happened. Basically, the people believed that the men in power simply didn't want to give that power up. In some countries, it was difficult to get an accurate opinion of the people, because the internet was either non-existent or strictly controlled. But by and large, it was becoming obvious that the current leaders of the world were trying to keep the people from speaking out on this decision.
    However, what opinions were gathered via the internet showed an overwhelming eighty percent of the people favored accepting Core World status. Sarah reported to Ambassador Gomez as well as Lord Admiral Vance that the intelligence services of the planet were working very hard to track down and silence any and all places on the internet where people expressed a favorable opinion for Core World status. In fact several other new sites had been created to discredit the Alliance and what it offered. Most of the information offered was little more than lies and half-truths, but the sites got very little traffic and what they did get was not 'return' traffic.
    Coupled with the amount of telephone traffic as well as other contacts, it was becoming obvious that the Alliance may have to invade simply to free the people from their own leaders. In countries like Columbia, that had a thriving illegal drug trade, and overly repressed countries like North Korea, such an action would most likely be required.
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    A I Programming Lab
    Alliance Apollo Base
    Selene, Earth's Moon
    Sol System
    ––––––––
    I n spite of all the bullshit happening down on Earth, we still had a job to do. However, in light of the massive expansion we would soon be going through, I took the morning to set down with our Administrator to plan out how to handle it before it became a problem.
    We had already started making arrangements by separating out the crystal growth process from the programming labs. That action set the stage for us to create two separate sub-sections under the Computer Section: Hardware and Software. We would