Free Final Assault by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch

After a moment, she elbowed Aldrich and got out of the way.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said as if they were in the larger, better equipped press conference room, “the president of the United States.”
    Mickelson noted that the final stage of lighting did not go on until Aldrich moved out of the way. The international press did not broadcast the introduction— which was probably the right move.
    Franklin walked across the room with a dignity that Mickelson had only seen in the man once before—on inauguration day. On that day, Franklin had later said, he felt the history and weight of the office for the first time.
    He clearly felt it now.
    Franklin sat at the partners desk, placed some papers on the top, then pressed a button on the side. A small clear screen rose from the modern protector that had been placed over the desk by the previous administration.
    Mickelson winced. Franklin was using his own TelePrompTer. He had revised the speech. Mickelson hoped he didn’t lose any of the content in the translation. That would definitely cause an international incident.
    “Citizens of Earth,” Franklin said, holding up the hard copy, an old-fashioned habit that he still favored.
    “I come to you tonight not as the president of the United States, but as a spokesman for all the world’s leaders. We have a plan that will allow us to defend ourselves against the threat posed by the tenth planet, a plan that we are going to share with you tonight.”
    So far so good, Mickelson thought. The opening was slightly different than originally written, but it sounded warm and personal.
    “I am speaking to you right now as a representative because we, the world leaders, believed that you should hear about what we are going to do from one voice. After my speech, your own country’s leader will speak, explaining how the plan will affect your individual country. But for this moment, we are one world. We are united in our opposition to the threat posed by the tenth planet. We speak with one voice—a human voice. A voice that the tenth planet will learn to respect.”
    Mickelson felt a shiver run down his back. Here was where Franklin deviated from the plan. He was going to sound tougher than the speechwriters had thought he should. The international experts and the speechwriters were afraid that a tough U.S. president would alienate the other countries.
    Mickelson hadn’t agreed, but hadn’t really argued his point either. He didn’t know the fine art of speech-making. He did most of his diplomatic work on the fly.
    “I know that all of you are frightened and panicked. You have all seen the images of last April’s destruction over and over again. But let me tell you about what we have done to the tenth planet.” Franklin’s dark eyes shone in the bright light. “We have hit them with nuclear weapons, destroying some of their shielding around their planet. The destruction we have caused to their surface would be the same as if someone had destroyed over half of the United States. In other words, we have hurt them worse than they have hurt us.
    “Why are they returning? Because they have no choice.”
    Franklin went on to outline why the scientists believed the tenth planet harvested Earth. As he did that, and as he told the citizens of the world why this was an important detail, Mickelson examined the faces. So far everyone in the room seemed rapt, even the reporters. It seemed as if information was what they had lacked, and getting it satisfied something, something they hadn’t even known they needed.
    “We have no choice,” Franklin said. “We are not some other planet’s food source. We will defend ourselves. And we will win.”
    Mickelson felt his heart leap with the words. They were Franklin’s words and they were the right ones. Mickelson no longer worried about the changes that Franklin had made in the speech.
    “We need the cooperation of every person in the world for this plan to succeed. We must stop