So Help Me God ...

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I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

John Takehiko Nakagawa lowered his right hand and turned to the other people in the room. He had a slight smile on his face as he nodded to those who had witnessed him taking the oath of office as the President of the United States.

The ceremony took place two days later than Nakagawa had hoped it would, primarily because it had taken time to gather the people he wanted, in fact needed, at the ceremony.

Gathered in the small auditorium on the grounds of the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, WV were five of the nine Supreme Court Justices, the hastily reconstituted Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military, and, a near miracle, 285 members of Congress. Barely enough to constitute a quorum in both houses, but enough so that outside observers should agree that the ceremony was legitimate.

Nakagawa stepped to the podium and addressed those in attendance.

"I call upon the former President, Mr. Herbert Norville, to step forward."

Norville stepped forward, nodding to the Chief Justice and to President Nakagawa.

"Mr. Norville, I hereby nominate you for the office of the Vice Presidency, do you accept?"

Norville, for once in his long career in business and in government, was at a loss for words. He nodded and said, "Yes, I accept."

The Speaker of the House and the new President Pro Tempore of the Senate looked at each other, the Speaker said, "If you would excuse us ladies and gentlemen, we need to vote on Mr. Norville's appointment. 25th Amendment you know, we do have a quorum, so it will be a valid vote."

The vote had been close, very close, Norville's nomination had passed by three votes total, one in the Senate, two in the House. But the proprieties and legalities had been observed. Shortly after that, when everyone had rejoined the members of Congress in the auditorium, the Chief Justice walked to the podium and administered the oath of office to newly appointed Vice President Herbert Michael Norville ...

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

A number of witnesses noticed the differences in the respective oaths, especially the lack of a "so help me God" in the Presidential oath. But it was done, the government of the United States had been reconstituted, now to see if the rest of the nation would accept it.

William Aspinall, who still headed Nakagawa's security detail over the objections of the Secret Service, noted that that there were only three members of what someone could roughly describe as the media. A woman representing CNN was present, as was a junior staffer from Fox News, a third person, another man, represented the Nippon Television Network a major news source in Japan. Not surprising as Nakagawa was the first person of Japanese descent to be the President of the United States.

He was so intent on watching the small crowd that he jumped when President Nakagawa took his elbow and asked, "Care to join us, Bill?" in a soft whisper.

The President looked at the men and women sitting at the conference room table, he needed them on his side, as he thought of it, in order to get things back to something approaching normal. The toughest sell would probably be with the acting leaders of the two houses of Congress.

"Madame Speaker, Senator Helmsley, what do you consider to be the first order of business in settling things down? I have reports of fighting breaking out in Boston, Cleveland, and New Orleans between government forces, mostly police, and armed groups calling themselves 'militia.'"

The new Commandant of the Marine Corps shifted in his chair at that, to which the President said, in a cold tone, "It's not your turn General, stand down."

Lieutenant General Mark Attleboro muttered, "Yes Sir." He was visibly unhappy, but some in the room saw that as perhaps stemming from the fact that his job required him to have four stars, his three looked paltry compared to the other officers in the room.

Admiral Jack Whalen leaned in and patted the Marine on the shoulder and whispered, "Patience, Mark, it's early days yet."

Senator Judson Helmsley cleared his throat and glanced at the Speaker, Marion Sullivan, who nodded as if to say, "You first."

"Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry, Mr. President ..."

"It's alright, Senator, I'm not used to it either."

Helmsley smiled, then spoke, "I think the first order of business is to lift this idiotic declaration of an insurrection taking place and revoke martial law in both Virginia and Maryland. Get the military back to their bases and the Guardsmen back to their homes."

Sullivan nodded and said, "That's a solid first step. We also might want to consider making an announcement of some sort of amnesty in certain cases. Passions are running high but certain acts, which didn't involve anyone getting hurt, could be forgiven in that light."

Nakagawa gave her a puzzled look, so she added some clarification. "There have been at least two instances, that I'm aware of, of private citizens defying the orders of police to disperse having been arrested."

Nakagawa instantly said, "Yes, Madame Speaker, I agree. Bruce, see to that, won't you?"

"Yes, Mr. President. Madame Speaker?"

"My aide has a list, he should still be outside," she said.

The meeting didn't adjourn until well after midnight. Not everyone was happy with certain decisions which had been made, but all agreed that things should be taken slowly, only addressing the most egregious events immediately.

One outstanding question which had taken some time to be resolved had been proposed by the junior Senator from New Hampshire. The question was whether a nationwide referendum had ever been held. Certain states had provisions for referendums, but nothing specific was mentioned in the Constitution itself.

A Congresswoman from Alabama pointed out that something called the national initiative had been proposed back in the early part of the 21st century but had never gathered much steam. "My point is, there is nothing in the Constitution which prohibits seeking the opinion of the American people, though a referendum of this nature would be more that just an opinion."

A number of people began to talk at once, the President spoke up, "Ladies and gentlemen, order, order, this is not a bad idea ..." he turned as his Vice President nudged him and pointed towards one of the Congressional aides present.

"You there, young man, you are?"

"Hank, er, Henry, McClellan, I'm an aide to Senator Shimada, from California."

"You have something to say?"

McClellan turned beet red, cleared his throat then spoke the following:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

"Mr. President, I think the young man is on to something, quoting the preamble to the Constitution should remind us that the people established the Constitution, we are simply their representatives in Congress. I move that we hold a referendum, see what the people have to say, then let the lawyers fight it out, if they have the guts for it." Senator William Shimada sat back down after his little speech. Shimada was not a lawyer and had little regard for that class, having been in the medical profession, he was a doctor, prior to being elected.

The Speaker of the House looked around, the Congresswoman from Alabama nodded and said, "I second the motion."

"Thank you Annabelle, ladies and gentlemen, there is a motion before this joint session of Congress, how say you?"

It was a simple voice vote with only two naysayers.

President Nakagawa stood up and announced, "Let's do this, can our combined staffs get this ball rolling?" He turned to the news people, "Can you put this out on the news?"

The CNN and Fox reporters looked at each other, both nodded.

"Let the people speak then. Madame Speaker, Mr. President of the Senate, I leave it to you to adjourn your session. I thank you for your service in this matter."

 

When the President, the Vice President, and their staffs gathered in the office the President had taken over, the phone rang, Bill Aspinall answered it. Listened, then turned very pale.

"Bill?"

Aspinall swallowed, tried to collect himself, then said, "Two things Mr. President, first, uh, the President, your predecessor, died 30 minutes ago, Secondly, the Director of the FBI has announced that a coup has been put down and that for now, he will be acting as President."

Nakagawa stood up and walked over to Aspinall, whispering he said, "Can we get to him. Tonight?"

"Do you want that to be your first act as President, Sir?"

"This will be my second, appointing a new Vice President was my first."

"Yes Sir, we can do that."

"Make it happen."

As Aspinall picked up the phone, Nakagawa told the others what was happening, then he said, "I have made an executive decision to have the man arrested, barring that, he is to be killed."

No one said a word. Within minutes the leadership of the Congress had been briefed, the Speaker of the House had simply said, "No one likes that bastard anyway. Mr. President, you have our blessing."