"Sir, I'm connecting you to the admiral now..." said the professor. I heard some static on the headphones for a while, before Mei started talking.
"Mr. President, I have been caught during the assassination attempt, and was instructed to inform you by the Core Council. I'm being held at gunpoint."
"A-Are you alright?" I asked.
"The Council demands you to transfer the command of the fleet and the space station over to them, including Lodos." Mei said, ignoring my question.
"Else?"
"I will be put on The Council's death row, and they will also cut their sensor feed to our fleet. I assume they already knew that we weren't fooled by their-"
"That's enough." someone interrupted Mei.
"Mei!"
"If you agree to the demands, you will contact The Council yourself. You have half an hour to decide, commander." she said. "That's all I'm allowed to say."
The communications were cut after that last statement.
"Damn it!" I cried, throwing the headphone away in rage. "What were our marines doing this whole time!?"
"Two of them might not have been enough to protect the admiral." said the professor. "There is a whole city of people down there."
I sat down in front of the navigation console, and started to think.
"The fleet represents the entirety of the Republic. They basically want to annex us." I said. "Ridiculous!"
"We still have all the guns." said the professor. "And thirty minutes."
"What do you suggest?" I asked. "They have captured our only admiral, the fleet's second-in-command. What do you think will happen when we turn our guns towards The Council? We could destroy them, but we would lose the admiral in the process, someone we won't be able to replace."
"That wasn't what I implied." said the professor. "I meant that we still have the upper hand in means of resources, and giving up the command of the fleet is not a choice."
"I know that very well." I nodded. "It is hard to say this out loud, but even if it would save Mei's life, I couldn't leave the fleet to them."
"I'm glad you can look at the situation without personal feelings clouding your judgement." said the professor. I looked into his eyes, in a questioning manner. "She is an old friend, is she not?"
"She is." I said. "But that's not what either of us learned in the naval academy. If I was there, she would do the same."
"I... I'm sorry for starting a sensitive-"
"No, I understand." I said, calmly. "However, I'm sure there is a way to get her back safely."
"What do you have in mind?" the professor asked.
"We could send down a lot of marines for a hostage operation." I said.
"...and get our shuttles shot down, and the hostage harmed." the professor completed the scenario.
"They are marines, they know better than directly jumping into the scene." I said.
"Most of those marines are the new recruits our forces trained after the apocalypse." argued the professor. "Those are not the sort of guys you used to have with you when Martian Navy still existed!"
I sighed.
"Maybe you are right." I said. "But if I command them, we can execute a nice operati-"
"You are not leaving this ship." the professor denied the idea. "That would be another big mistake."
"We need to get her back!" I said. "I know the underground city well. If I lead the operation, we can-"
"You are not leaving this ship." Yamamari raised his voice.
"Professor, I think you forgot who the commander is here." I said.
"I don't care when our future is at stake." said the professor. "The chain of command can burn in hell. You will stay here, or the Republic will fall apart if someone notices that you are somewhere on Makemake. The Council's forces will specifically target you, and the opportunists among the Republic won't miss any chance."
I silently thought about it.
"Besides, Lodos' bridge is extremely undercrewed anyway, and I don't know how to fly a spaceship." the professor added. "And furthermore, with the first two commanders absent, this would leave either me or the chief engineer as the temporary commander; both of whom are people with zero military command experience."
"Alright, I get it." I said. "But I see no other solution, I'm sending down marines. Perhaps with one of the older and more experienced folks in command, like one of those early marines who escaped the massacre on Earth and Mars, our teams can handle the job."
"Well..." said the professor. "If you think that is the correct course of action, I have no objections at this time."
"If you don't have any objections right at this time, you don't have objections and that's it." I said. "Because there is no turning back once I give the order."
As soon as the marine teams got my order, a quick operation plan was made and teams boarded some shuttles we've got from nearby ships, because Lodos' only shuttle was taken by Mei herself previously. The expected flight time of around twenty minutes would leave our marines with something less than ten minutes to successfully complete the mission, which was far less than optimal. But they were trained for that, and I was confident.
Unfortunately, contrary to my expectations, the mission ended before it even began.
"Sir, we've got a plain text message... from The Council." the professor said. "They say that if any of those two shuttles approach the city borders any closer than 25 kilometers, they won't be able to guarantee the admiral's safety."
"Didn't forget to upgrade their sensor constellations, huh?" I said. "Never thought that pressing The Council for better sensor installations would bite me back one day."
"Sir, our marines are still approaching the city." the professor reminded me.
"Order them to turn back." I said. "If they are being watched already, the operation is a failure."
"If so..." asked the professor. "What do we do? We are running out of time."
"Maybe we can trick them." I said. "If we can't find an alternative in our remaining time, we will comply with their demands; but the moment I transfer the command and their commanding officers get in charge of the ship crews, and the admiral is released, our-"
"They won't keep their word, and you know that." said the professor. "There is no good reason to take such a risk."
"Ugh, you are right." I said. "In that case, I don't know what to do right now..."