When Saunders and Drummond walked into communications, there was a man already in there waiting for them. As the two men entered the high tech room, the man walked over and extended a hand for both men to shake, which they did.

     "Gentlemen," the man started, "Welcome to Mars Space Observatory, also know to the grunts up here as the M.S.O."

     "This is Commander Devon Jackson," Eric said to Drummond, "The commanding officer of the station."

     "I've heard of you," Drummond said, after he shook the man's hand. "You used to work for NASA, right?"

     "That's correct," Devon replied, "I was in command of the international space station for over a year."

     "So this is second nature to you," Drummond said, realizing that Eric cut no corners looking for the right people for each job.

     "I'll admit this place has a lot more perks," Devon said, smiling, "And the chance to take a fighter for a cruise every now and then is a lot of fun too, as I'm sure you found out earlier today."

     "What's the status of our communications with Earth?" Eric asked the commander, getting down to business.

     "We've been communicating with Earth for the better part of two weeks, only through text messages. It felt like having a conversation on twitter, a little frustrating." The Commander explained, "My experience with NASA has made communication civil, as I've been talking to Houston and people I've known for quite some time."

     "I was hoping that was the case." Eric said as he walked over to one of the three comfy chairs that were in front of a massive screen.

     "Did they give us much detail on why it took so long to re-establish contact?" Drummond asked.

     "The asteroid has high levels if iron and other various metals." Devon replied, "That and the debris from taking the big rock out also obliterated every satellite that was in existence. There's so much rock up there, attempts to replace any of them were taken out as well."

     "At least they survived!" Drummond said, letting out a deep sigh.

     "I don't have many details about that," Devon replied, "I don't think it was a cake walk for them as NASA has been rather shy to give me the nitty gritty, and I really cranked up the charm. No dice."

     "What's different about today?" Drummond asked.

     "Today is going to be our first video connection," the Commander answered, "Earth is using a satellite that is so far out of orbit that it's about halfway to the moon, and we're using Stargazer Five to relay the feed. We should have a clean connection with no more than a fifteen second delay. This is going to be epic, the first actual phone call between Mars and Earth."

     "When are we expecting the call?" Drummond asked.

     "Take a seat," Devon replied, "It's almost time. Just let me do the talking and we'll try to keep this as civil as possible."

     Saunders and Drummond took seats on the outer parts while Devon Jackson sat in the middle as he was the ranking officer on the station. Moments later the screen started to beep, and Devon hit a button to activate the screen and accept the call that was coming in. When the screen came in, there were also three people on the other side of the call, as instructed. When negotiating the event, it was agreed that no more than three people on each side would be present to lower the chance of people talking over one another. On the other side of the call were three very familiar people to Drummond and Jackson. The first one was Owen Smith, the man was NASA's chief. The second man there was Peter McCain, known to Drummond as the Secretary of Defense. The man in the middle chair was familiar to all three of them. So much that both Jackson and Drummond left to their feet and saluted, standing there like statues. Moments later, the man in the middle spoke.

     "At ease, gentleman." He said, appreciating the respect being shown even all the way from another planet.

     After the two men sat down, Drummond was the next one to speak. "Mr. President, it's good to see you."

     "Thank you," the President replied, "I can't begin to tell you how lucky we all are to be having this conversation. About four months after your final vessel left Earth's orbit, the other programs started their campaign to destroy the asteroid. While many attempts were outright failures, one of our more dangerous and ambitious plans was successful. Our success was not met without sacrifice. There were still large fragments that were able to get through re-entry and cause horrific devastation. Whole cities, and even a few small nations were completely obliterated, by either mammoth tsunamis or the asteroids hitting land itself. But the one that threatened to obliterate all life was turned away. We were able to rebuild and prosper."

     "I can't begin to tell you how happy we are to hear that, Mr. President." Jackson said, resuming his plan to do all the talking.

     "Now that you know how things are going over here, what is your status?" the secretary asked, "How is life on Mars?"

     "Sorry to correct you, Mr. Secretary," Jackson replied, "We are not currently on the surface of the planet."

     "Explain that please." The President asked.

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     "My name is Commander Devon Jackson," he continued, "I'm the commanding officer of the M.S.O., also known as the Mars Space Observatory, a space station that is orbiting the planet."

     "You constructed a space station?" the secretary repeated, "How man souls onboard?"

     "Just over a hundred," Jackson answered, "This used to be Stargazer Three before it was decommissioned and transfigured to be the station."

     "That's very resourceful," The President commented, surprised to hear that they had a space station in orbit that was larger than a naval battleship. "What is the status of the colony?"

     "It's doing well, Sir." Jackson replied, "Over thirty thousand inhabit the colony and are adjusting to life on Mars rather well. And I should know, I've been watching it from above and keeping an eye out for any dangers. So far so good, Sir."

     "How are your supplies holding out?" the secretary asked.

     "They are holding well, but agriculture has been so successful that self sustenance has been quite successful thus far," Drummond answered, "We have been raising crops and breeding cattle and other livestock with great success and no issues with the new atmosphere on either."

     "I have to commend your efforts," The president said, "Your work on Mars has exceeded all of our expectations."

     "Thank you, Sir." Jackson replied, "We've been rather proud of it ourselves."

     "When can one of the Stargazer ships return to Earth?"

     The question hung in the air for quite some time. This was when Eric Saunders finally stepped into the conversation.

     "Not anytime soon, Mr. President." Eric answered.

     "Doctor Saunders," the Secretary responded, "Your handling of this program has angered a lot of people here on Earth. Your refusal to even allow us to nominate people to make the trip was also upsetting."

     "Your acceptance was irrelevant." Eric said to the secretary. "I chose the people who would make the best contributions to the colony, to ensure its success. We had to make plans to prepare for your possible demise. That meant picking people best for the job, not because they knew someone with power. That meant picking people who were capable of taking care of themselves and others to ensure survival. Opening that process to politicians would have compromised that objective. With the survival of our species on the line, your wishes took a back seat. It's that simple."

     "I'll make this simple," The President said, sitting up in his seat. "I am ordering one of your Stargazer cruisers to return to Earth."

     "I'm afraid we can't do that." Eric replied, "Your authority is no longer recognized by the colony."

     "Excuse me?" the secretary replied, "Who is in charge up there? You, Doctor Saunders?"

     "No," Saunders answered, "We elected a council to function as the colony's government. They are in charge of the Stargazer program now. The ships and everything on the colony is under their authority. We are only here speaking to you because we asked and were given their permission to do so."

     "Are you a member of this council?" the secretary pushed.

     "He's not," Drummond replied for him, "But I am. I'm the military representative of the council. I'm also in charge of defense."

     "I see." The President replied, "This is unacceptable gentlemen."

     "That's exactly what the British said when the declaration of independence was delivered." Eric countered, "Not liking it doesn't change the fact that it's happening. Taking orders from another planet is not in this colony's best interests, and would prevent us from doing what is necessary to survive if we have to ask you for permission for everything decision we make."

     "What makes you think we can't respond to your rebellion?" the secretary asked.

     "You can't replicate my engines," Eric replied, "Which means you have no means of getting to Mars without my tech. That's why you want Stargazer Five to return, so that you can strip it down, reverse engineer it and build a fleet to retake Mars. Not going to happen, gentlemen. Not while I'm still breathing. I'd rather take that secret to the grave than allow this colony to be seized."

     "If you'd like to visit," Jackson added, "I'd be happy to accept any explorer NASA sends over with open arms. Just give a heads up so we don't accidentally blow it out of the stars."

     "I've had enough of this," The president said as he stood up. Moments later the line went dead, and their conversation was over. The three men looked at one another and contemplated what was being said on the other side after they disconnected.

     "That could have been better." Jackson admitted.

     "It could have been a lot worse." Drummond replied, "You should have seen the vein popping out of the secretary's head when Eric mentioned the British and the declaration of independence. Did we just declare our own independence right now?"

     "Does that make us the founding fathers?" Jackson also asked.

     "No," Eric replied, "We are here on behalf of the council. History will show that it was elected leaders of the free colony who declared their own independence. We just delivered their will like glorified messengers."

     "I think it was wise to leave out any details of our defense." Jackson also added, "They don't need to know that we have a squadron of fighter jets whose tech is way beyond anything they have."

     "I agree," Eric concurred, "Let them think it's just the colony, the station and a few Stargazer ships. If they try anything, we'll be more than capable of turning them away and back from whence they came."

     "What if they try to contact us again?" Jackson then asked. "Should I answer?"

     "No," Eric replied, "It won't be happening anyway. Contact Stargazer Five and instruct it to return to Mars as soon as possible. Only tweets from here on."

     "Understood," Jackson replied, "That should piss them off."

     "I don't really care," Eric confessed, "I want all those ships as far away from Earth as soon as possible. They'll try to replicate my work, but in case they are successful, we need to do what we can to boost our defense to its limit."

     "We'll do whatever we can," Jackson said, shaking their hands again. "I'll have a pilot take you back to the surface. It was a pleasure, gentlemen."

     While on his way back to the surface, Drummond was silent in his seat as he went over the conversation in his head. Eric was right to be cautious, but to turn on his own country was never part of the plan. Drummond also knew something neither Eric nor Devon were aware of. He was in the meetings at the pentagon and the white house where many politicians and generals joked about making the Mars colony a vacation destination for the rich if the Earth survived its apocalypse. They had zero intention of letting the people coming here stay and would have kicked them all out, saying thank you for risking your lives but it's back to your regular life on Earth while only super rich can afford a condo on the red planet. Eric's plan was to build a self sustainable alternative, a back up for the human race in the event that something happened to Earth, whether it be the asteroid, global warming or world war three. All the work and risks taken was done for good intentions, and Drummond would be damned if he was going to let Earth treat their work like a punch line to a very sick joke. Not while there was still breath in both him and Eric Saunders.