To Preserve and Protect

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Chapter One

Transfer of Power


The president sat down at his desk with jelly beans and tea in hand. He needed time to think and wine down. He had just got back from negotiating with the Soviet Premier over the LGM-118 Peacekeeper missile deployment in Europe. The negotiations had little success. The new Soviet Premier was just unworkable with.

The Soviet leader would threaten to send more troops to German border. He would demand that the US withdraw troops from West Germany. He would threaten to deploy more Soviet nukes in Eastern Europe. The Premier was just not negotiable with.

God, how he missed Gorbachev. Gorbachev was so much more workable with. Too bad he got caught in an explosion. His successor Vladmir was as anti capitalist as the president's veep was anti communist.


President Reagan scooped a handful of jelly beans from his jar. While enjoying their flavor, he thought to himself. How was he going to deal with this new threat? He just met the new premier and Vladmir seemed more determined and aggressive at stopping capitalism than the president was at stopping communism.

"Eh. Let's not worry about him now. There are domestic issues to deal with now." The president had a potential succession crisis right now. The doctor diagnosed that he had a failing heart due to smoking. It was hard to keep that a secret from the public during his re election campaign two years ago.

While he fared well during the election, Reagan felt himself getting weaker and weaker inside as time went on. He and his staff had spent the past two years about his potential death during his term. A few months ago he visited the doctor again who confirmed that Reagan didn't have much time left .

The administration was preparing Vice President Jason Knox as much as they could for his likely succession to the presidency. While Jason was heavily like Reagan in the foreign policy area, he lacked political respect and charisma. Jason was seen as ruthless at getting what he wants by Congress.

Knox would most likely face difficulty working with Congress as president. He didn't seem to like domestic policy much anyway. Jason was more like former vice president Bush. Foreign policy was their baby.

Not only was Jason's relations with Congress strain but also with Reagan's cabinet. Jason and the Secretary of State would always have disagreements about how to deal with the Soviet Union. He, the Secretary of Defense, and Director of CIA would have arguments about strategy. Reagan seemed to be the only person in the federal government who Jason got along with.

It was safe to say that many government officials weren't looking forward to Jason taking office." Maybe I should have a chat to him about the realities of the presidency and having to work with people." The president picked up the phone on his desk.

Suddenly he started to spasm. The phone in his hand dropped to the floor and Reagan and stood up.
He had his hand on his chest and was gasping. The heart attack didn't even give him a chance to get help. Eventually the president started collapsing. Unfortunately when he fell, Reagan accidentally hit his forehead on the desk. His last moments were him moaning in pain from the hit and spilling gibberish.


"A quorum is present. Call the roll. Don't let two seconds pass." The president of the Senate knocked his gavel.
"Mr. President. I would like to propose-" Senator Mudd was cut off by the President of the Senate.
"Mr Mudd, you are out of order. The roll call has began. The clerk will continue to call the roll."


Vice president Jason Knox motioned his hand for Senator Mudd to move along. The roll call started and Jason slouched back in his chair. "It feels could to be running Congress." Jason thought to himself. Power felt so good.

"Mr Anderson."
"Yea'"
"Mr. Brock."
"Nay."
"Mr-." The doors to the Senate chamber opened. Secret Servicemen rushed in heading towards the Vice President's chair at the end of the chamber. "Mr. Vice President please come with us."

"Now what is going on he-".
"Please Mr. Vice President come with us."
Vice President Knox got up from his chair and exited the Senate Chamber surrounded by Secret Servicemen. He was rushed out the Capital Building to a waiting motorcade outside. Agents were surrounded the area.

When he was placed into the limo, Knox was greeted by the head of his Secret Service detail Michael Cord. "Sorry to interrupt your session Knox."

"Mike, what the heck is going on?" The motorcade took off. Sirens went going off and play police motorcycle lead the convoy.

"President Reagan has just died from a heart attack. You are now the President of the United States."
Knox let the words sink in. Gipper was gone. Jason had always dreamed of becoming president but not like this. From now until 1989 he was now in control of the country.


End of 1st Chapter​


Let me know what you think of the story. If you vote "not interested let me know what I can do to make it better. Thank you for reading the first chapter of "To Preserve and Protect."

Edit: I also should note that the premise might seem to come off "Crisis in the Kremlin" like. I am not trying to copy that story. My inspiration for this story is from Allen Drury.








 
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Chapter Two

A New Leader


The president's dead body laid in state at the White House for a day and a night. On Friday morning, Reagan's procession headed towards Union Station where the train would take his body back to California. An estimated 300,000 people observed the procession heading through the streets of Washington.

The weather today was light rains. Politicians and the press were surprised at first that 300,000 people showed up for the procession. But Reagan was very well liked and won elections in landslides so they guess it shouldn't be that surprising.

There were a total of 90 limos. The first two limos were carrying the president's corpse, the president's late family, the new president and his wife. Following them were all of the Supreme Court, the Speaker of the House, Democrat and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, President Pro tempore, and Cabinet officials.

In the new president's limo it was total silence. Jason was caught up in his thoughts. His wife Debbie was silently mourning Reagan's death along with Nancy who was silent but clearly had tears in her eyes.

In the third limo, the Speaker of the House was looking out the car window like a depressed child. Even though he was a Democrat, he saw Reagan as a friend. He was also thinking about the new personality that would be in the White House for the next two years.

While the Speaker didn't know Jason well, he had heard rumors from senators about Knox and his grip on the Senate and unwillingness to compromise. The next two years of passing legislation was going to be rough.

The Democratic leader of the Senate crossed eyes with the Republican leader of the Senate. Both of them had the same concerns about Knox. Neither of them had friendly relations with him and he was now one of the most powerful men on earth. They were aware of the president's upcoming passing and tried all they could to get him to compromise but Jason rarely ever did unless Reagan asked him to.

Now that Reagan is gone, he was a loose canon. A ticking time bomb. A bull who had just seen red.
The president pro tempore of the Senate was happier than most of them since he now officially controlled the Senate. Despite the promotion, he was still sad about Knox becoming POTUS.

Almost on every street the limo procession passed their were mourners in crowds. Union Station's crowd was even worse. Reagan's body was taken out and put on the train. There would be several ceremony stops on the train's journey across the country.


After the train left Union Station, President Knox gave a small speech to the crowds and to the nation for comfort in this tragedy. The speech was nearly as short as Knox' s inauguration addresses.




When Knox returned to the White House he was greeted by shouting advisors. There was just a funeral of one ofAmerica's most popular president and Knox wasn't having it.

"Everybody that isn't in foreign or congressional affairs shut up and leave!" Most of them did.
"Mr. President, I have a foreign affairs rep-" the advisor saw the look on Knox' s face and shutted up.
"Mr. President maybe we should have a joint session of Congr-" Knox interrupted her saying "Not yet."

"Well why did you want us to stay? I will get to you. I just have to do one thing before that. Jason Knox headed upstairs to the hall that lead to the Oval Office. "I've waited along time for this moment."

He slowly walked down the hall observing the paintings and decorations plastered around it. Beautiful way to be greeted before officially starting the job. When he reached the door that lead to the Oval Office, Knox took a deep breath."Finally."

He entered the Office. President Knox was taken aback by how different it felt to enter the Office as president. He had been in the Oval Office many times but being president made it feel... new.

Jason took about 10 minutes let it all set it in. He sat on both couches,. He started up the fire place. He took time to admire the presidential sign on the floor. Then at last the chair.

Jason slowly went up to the desk. He slowly felt its smoothness as he went around to the other side. When Jason reached the chair, he pushed it away. He put both hands on the desk and took it in. "I've finally made it."
 
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