Chapter 17

We kept an eye on Captain Dumas as he made his way back to Washington D.C. I joked that I sure would like to be a fly on the wall when he made his report. I then had to explain to Narith the meaning of the phrase. He smiled after hearing my explanation and said "No problem," A phrase he had become very fond of saying. He deployed a bug that attached itself to the good Captain.

Being as how it was Narith's technology the bug was orders of magnitude more complicated than any thing I'd ever seen, and that included the stuff Hollywood dreamed up. So I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. Narith's little bug burrowed its way into the Captain's brain, and from there began to send us back audio and video data, but that wasn't the surprise. No, the surprise came when it started sending back the Captain's thoughts.

It was over a month before the Captain and his men made it to Washington. Capt. Dumas didn't even bother to knock the trail dust off before going to his commanding officer, a Col. Williams, and giving his report. He had struggled all the way back over what to say in his report. In the end he had urged his government to accept the terms of the Band and sue for peace. He knew that his opinion that there was no way that the US Army could defeat them in battle would not sit well.

His commanding officer's face had gone blaze red when he read the captain's assessment. Without saying a word he had stormed out of his office and headed to the commanding general. General Smith read the report that his underling had shoved in front of him. Looking up and seeing the young captain standing in the doorway hat in hand, he invited him into the room. We listened as Capt. Dumas explained that the Band now included all of the Plains Indians. The General didn't have a hard time believing that the Indians had united, but he couldn't believe the claims the Captain made about the Band's weapons. The General pulled out a pocket watch and looked at the time. He called an aid in and asked for his carriage to be brought to the front of the building.

After dismissing the Colonel the General asked for Capt. Dumas to come with him. When the carriage started up the drive to the White House the Captain was wishing he taken the time to clean up.

General Smith and Capt. Dumas were led to the President's living room. The General handed Capt. Dumas' report to the President, "Sir, this is Capt. Dumas." General Smith expected the President to acknowledge the Captain, but he didn't. He just kept reading the written report.

President Polk was anxious to read the report. He had already heard that the Captain hadn't brought anyone in with him as he'd been ordered to do. James K. Polk was a firm believer in 'Manifest Destiny': the belief that the United States was ordained by God to expand to all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Captain Dumas watched as the President's face grew dark, wishing he had given the letter of resignation he had in his pocket to the General before they saw the President. As he watched the President get more and more angry he was regretting his decision even more.

When he had finished reading the report he threw it on the floor, "No bunch of damn Indians and Niggers are going to claim the entire centre section of this continent. I'll have the Army go through there and wipe them off the face of the earth."

"Sir, you can't!" Capt. Dumas exclaimed, "They can slaughter any force you can send against them. Their weapons are..."

Interrupting the President screamed, "Bullshit! That's what they are. General you need to send the Captain to a doctor he seems to be hallucinating,"

We sat in the communications wagon listening to President Polk rant and rave. Red Hawk turned to me, "What if we had the pilots take me, you, and three squads to this Washington DC. We could talk to this Polk and convince him that the Captain was right. Maybe bring him back here and show him what we can do now."

I couldn't think of a better idea so I nodded my head. Red Hawk turned to Fanny, "Go alert the pilots of Alpha Flight and tell Red Hand we need three of his best squads." Fanny saluted and started out of the wagon when Red Hawk called her back, "Tell them to bring some of these stunners that Narith gave us." Fanny saluted again and disappeared into the night. A flurry of whistles could be heard around the camp as men and women hurried to their duties.

"Well if you want me to go, and I am assuming you do, I best go inform my wives." I started out of the wagon.

Red Hawk laughed, "Learned your lesson about slipping off have you?"

I shook my head in wonder, "Boy howdy! Nothing stays a secret for long around here does it?" I left to laughter behind me.

As soon as I explained to my wives what was going on, Beth gave Jana a look that got her up buckling on her pistols. I opened my mouth to say something and thought better of it. I kissed my wives and grabbed the two mobile med kits while Jana grabbed the heart and vitals monitor that Narith had given us and we headed across the camp.

The helicopters of Alpha Flight could best be described as Blackhawks on steroids. Big enough to carry three squads in a pinch, they normally only carried one and their equipment. So there would be plenty of room for all that were going. Jana and I got in and buckled up; ten minutes later we were lifting off.

It was a long tiresome five hour flight. At just after four in the morning the first of Alpha flights three helicopters touched silently touched down on the Whitehouse lawn. The big difference between the alien built helos and the ones of my time was just how quiet that they could be. When any of the alien built craft went into stealth mode no noise above a whisper could be heard. That had let us land undetected. Jana and I sat quietly waiting as the three squads of Red Hand's commandos left the helicopters to their assigned spot.

It was a long fifteen minutes before we heard the all secure signal over our headsets. Jana hopped up and went to the door looking for herself to see if it was safe for me to get out. I came up behind her and goosed her. Boy, did I get a look. We stepped out of the open door and I signalled to the pilot to take off. The three birds would fly cover for us while we were on the ground.

Red Hawk walked up to us and we followed him up the lawn and straight through the front door of the Whitehouse. The Presidential guards had all been stunned and moved to a room where they could be watched. Red Hawk went in and shook the President awake. Needless to say he was less than happy about getting woke up. Very unhappy when he found out who it was that had woke him.

Two of the female troopers and Jana took Mrs. Polk into another room to dress and they started telling her about the Band and how women were treated. It was Red Hawk's idea, knowing that the women behind the men would be a good place to start changing their attitude toward us.

It was forty five minutes after we landed that General Smith and Capt. Dumas arrived. The President was dressed by that time and although less than happy about being forced to leave with us, he saw no other options. A signal from Red Hand and the three helos descended. I gave our guests an injection that Narith said would ease their motion sickness and off we went headed back to Ft. Leavenworth.

We had been in the air about ten minutes when the Captain grinned at the President, "Enjoying your hallucination Mr. President?"

"You're right Capt. Dumas I owe you an apology. I'm sorry for doubting you," the President responded.

"It's Mister not Captain I resigned last night after I left you. But don't worry," he opened the brown paper wrapped package sitting in his lap in enough to show the new set of buckskins. "I was going to resign anyway. This flight is just going to save me a long ride."

"Can I ask what you are going to do with us?" the President asked me.

I smiled at him, "Sure you can ask. But you were introduced to our leader and he's sitting right beside you. Why don't you ask him rather than me?" The President had a shocked look on his face.

"I am the President of the United States, why are you being so disrespectful?"

"Simple sir, you are disrespecting our leader. Would you like Red Hawk to ignore you and explain everything to the General over there?"

"But ... he's ... an Indian!"

"And you sir, are an ignorant white man. What's your point?" I watched him squirm. Then I winked at Red Hawk.

Red Hawk smiled broadly and spoke directly at the President in perfect English, "We have the power and ability to conquer you and your people. The ease with which we captured you should show you that. What you should be happy about, and what I'm sure that you will be happy about by the time you sleep in your bed again, is this: we have no desire whatsoever to conquer you. If we did, understand this, we would immediately make these changes. Slavery ends, all citizens get equal rights, which means, women get all the rights that white men have now. As do all people of colour, be they former slaves male or female, or native peoples, Indians to you."

The President sat in shocked silence thinking what Red Hawk's speech would mean. He turned and looked at his wife. She was grinning from ear to ear, "Trying to decide what their rules would mean for you and your friends, Jimmy?" The President's face went blaze red, "I would say that your 'Manifest Destiny' just got very expensive, wouldn't you?"

President Polk was absently nodding his head. He looked up at Red Hawk, "What now?"

"Now we fly back to our base and we give you a demonstration. It should clear up the Captain's hallucinations for you," Red Hawk winked at the former captain.

Red Hawk nudged Fanny and she handed him a clipboard. He started writing out orders when he finished he handed it to me. I read over the orders, signed them and handed them back, "Looks good to me." Red Hawk signed the orders and added the day's code word and then handed them over to Fanny.

Fanny unbuckled herself stood and saluted. She then took the orders to the communication officer who began sending the coded message.

Red Hawk watched the President watching the young girl, "She's setting up a demonstration for you. We'll watch the first part from in here.

The President sat silently thinking about what had been said. Suddenly it came to him, "Hallucinations! The Captain's hallucinations, how did you know about that?"