Chapter 1

Symphony No. 1 in F minor (OP. 10)

"The withering away of illusions is a long and dreary process, like a toothache. But you can pull out a tooth. Illusions, dead, continue to rot within us. And stink. And you can't escape them. I carry all of mine around with me."

- Dmitri Shostakovich as told to Solomon Volkev in Testimony AFC 15

Launching of the NACR Libertad was not without complications. The flagship vessel of the North American Communist Republic (NACR) had been broadcast over the majority of television news channels since Supreme Father Fidel Castro announced that the Libertad was being built five years prior. A large transport ship was to take the greatest minds of the times and launch them into a slow orbit around the solar system to allow human kind the time they needed to repair the damage to the planet Earth. The news channels repeatedly reported that the objective of the ship was to follow a pre-charted path around the solar system that was scheduled to take a hundred years to complete. After launch, the ship was to travel at a constant speed to Neptune then using gravitational pull from Neptune to generate a slingshot maneuver to accelerate the ship back towards Earth for a landing twenty five years after the slingshot was completed. Mankind's greatest thinkers, leaders, and their descendants would return to the Earth to repopulate and restore the greatness of the human race.

As the launch date approached, Father Castro was more accessible for interviews and public appearances than he had been since the initial announcement. He and the other leaders of the NACR had completed their selection process of the participants and were in the process of announcing the selected candidates. His traditional dark black beard and his black hair underneath his olive green hat were starting to show more grey. The darkness under his eyes had been slowly increasing over the years since he had become the supreme leader.

Even though by mid-1964, he had restored order to the communist countries after the ill fated date of November 22nd, 1963. However, the remainder of the world still had not accepted his leadership. His attempted assassination had weighed heavy on him. However, the successful murder of United States President John F Kennedy and United Nations Secretary General U Thant by Soviet Union leader Nicholi Krushchev in a secret meeting had given Father Castro the motivation and desire to step up and restore order to the world that had been thrown into chaos. The secret meeting had been a trap set by the Soviet Union to remove the primary capitalist leaders from spreading their propaganda and giving false hope to the citizens of the United Soviet Socialist Republic. The weeks following the bloody secret meeting saw the major nations launching their entire nuclear arsenals at each other. The destruction of fertile lands and massive amounts of people was devastating.

A hidden video camera was discovered and the clips released to the media showed Krushchev had coordinated the attack. He even appeared to be issuing orders throughout the video. As President Kennedy was visible on the video lying on the ground with blood draining from the gunshot wounds, United States Vice President Lyndon B Johnson vowed that the United States would respond appropriately. He issued the orders that launched a full out nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. In a matter of hours, the United States had launched their fleet of nuclear weapons directed at the USSR strategic cities and their known locations of the nuclear weapons storehouses and silos. The USSR had no time to respond with a counter attack before millions of people were wiped from the face of the earth and the planet screamed out in horror as levels of radiation climbed to levels never dreamed of before even in worst case scenarios.

Supreme Father Castro could only smile as he recalled the initial conversation he had with the former President Johnson when he dialed his rotary phone to make a connection to the red phone located in the White House's oval office.

"Johnson, here," came the stunned voice of President Johnson who had just viewed the video footage of the nuclear explosion from an errant missile that landed thousands of miles off course to detonate over London.

"Señor Johnson, this is Fidel Castro and I am calling for your unconditional surrender of the United States to Cuba," he said calmly speaking in a heavily Cuban accented English.

"Surrender? What the hell are you talking about, Castro? We just ended the war with the Ruskies, once and for all," Johnson sounded out of breath as he replied.

“Señor Johnson, I say one more time, I am asking for your unconditional surrender of the United States to Cuba and our allies. You have two hours to respond or my hand will be forced to take action.” Without waiting for a response, Castro hung the phone up.

The second call came five minutes later.

"Castro, what the hell are you talking about? Why would we surrender to you? You would not dare attack the United States, you do not have the capacity to do so. We have you outmanned and outgunned. One branch of our service has more members than your small island,” Johnson said pompously over the line.

“Señor Johnson, while you were busy overreacting and launching your nuclear arsenal on the Soviet Union, we were busy preparing our missiles for launch as well. Our missiles may have been purchased from the Soviet Union, however they are fully armed and operational. The Cuban missiles are not targeted at objectives thousands of miles overseas, but have remained targeted at something at bit closer to us. Furthermore, while we are discussing this, sir, I am aware that your nuclear arsenal has been depleted because we counted each and every one of them as they flew through the air. Except of course, you may want to also include the downed ballistic sub off the coast of South Carolina that had a failure in their launch sequence. That boat is no longer able to be contacted and presumed lost," came Castro's smug reply, thick cigar smoke filling the air.

"How do you know that?," escaped from Johnson's mouth before he could catch himself.

"We have our methods, but I will give you one final chance. You now have sixty minutes to notify me of your surrender of the United States of America or I will launch upon your great country," Castro hung up the phone and took a long draft from his smoking cigar.

The silence in the room was deafening, the only sound heard was the mechanical ticking of the large industrial black and white clock hanging above the exit door. The tick-tocking sounds infected Castro’s mood as he started to pace around the room in anticipation. After he started moving around the room, hushed conversations resumed between Castro's staff members. They were all looking at the large display board covered with monitors on the wall that feed in radar images of the skies above the western continents. There were very few markers on the screen indicating airliners in flight. The green highlighted squares moved slowly as if they were in no hurry to get anywhere. However, there were a handful of red highlighted squares that were moving south from the Tennessee area on the map. Castro’s advisors had guessed correctly that the United States had launched an air strike toward Havana.

Castro glanced at the clock over the door and saw that it had been fifty eight minutes since he had hung up with President Johnson. He looked at the man with slicked back hair wearing a dark charcoal grey suit standing to the side of the exit door. Castro nodded at him and using his right hand pointed to the watch on his left wrist. The man exited the room and Castro turned back to the image of the map on the screen.

"Tenemos un pajaro en vuelo," called out one of the men sitting closest to screen.

“Gracias, Teniente,” Castro acknowledged.

He stepped around the tables returning to where the telephone was located. He located a pack of matches and picked it up. Opening the pack, he pulled out a match and struck it on course surface on the back of the pack, igniting the match. He put the flame in front of the new cigar that he had been holding and twirling in his hand for the past half an hour.

The telephone rang breaking the muted tension in the room. All heads in the room turned towards the phone and Castro took his time picking up the receiver.

"Castro," he said while exhaling a large cloud of cigar smoke.

"What the hell are you doing to Texas, Fidel?," came the shocked voice of President Johnson on the other end.

"I gave you ample opportunity to surrender, señor," replied a calm Castro.

"We will never surrender, you communist pig," growled Johnson.

“Señor Johnson, let me refresh your memory. You depleted your arsenal of nuclear warheads obliterating your enemy and their stockpile of weapons. There have been other parties interested in stockpiling weapons as they saw an end coming to the supposed Cold War.”

Castro tapped his cigar on the edge of the glass ash tray and watched the ash fall gracefully to the bottom.

"There are others that believe it is time for a government to rise from the ashes of the USA and USSR. While you battled it out and depleted our advantage, other world leaders came together and agreed with me that I should become the new world leader to repair the damage that capitalism has done to our world. As you recall, you launched enough warheads that the Eastern side of the globe will be unlivable for hundreds of year. Or am I mistaken, and the radar showed incorrectly?,” he paused, waiting for an answer.

"What right did you have to do this, Castro?"

"As much right as the American pigs do in telling the rest of the world how to behave. Without the threat of a nuclear deterrent, the world is free to act as needed to restore order to the world.”

Castro smiled knowing that this conversation was going exactly as he planned. The Americans were so predictable.

"But you are aggressively attacking us," Johnson retorted.

"It was your choice. It is the blood of the capitalists living in Houston, Texas that is on your hands. I wash my hands of their pain and suffering. I offered you a path of no violence and you ignored it.”

Castro pulled his green hat off and wiped his brow before returning the hat back onto his now sweat beaded head.

"I had no idea…no idea…that you had… to …No idea that you had planned to bomb us," said Johnson, struggling to get the words out.

"You Americans are not as smart as you think you are," Castro said, a smirk creeping onto his face.

"We never claimed to be smarter than you, Castro, we just tried to prevent having a nuclear threat in our backyard. It appears that we underestimated you for what it’s worth. What is it you want from to us to prevent the destruction of any more of our land?,” Johnson had finally recovered from his initial shock from the beginning of the call.

"I will re-start the clock as soon as our call is finished for the final time. I demand the United States surrender their property and governmental control to the North American Communist Republic within sixty minutes or we will launch our second missile towards another target in the United States. I repeat, you have sixty minutes," Castro said and then hung up the telephone.

The sound of claps and cheers came from throughout the room and Castor could not help but smile. He motioned for the room to settle down then he stepped outside to get a breath of fresh air. Several minutes passed as the rays of the sun warmed him. Castro looked up into the sun and finalized the next actions in his mind. Stepping quickly back into the room, he found the man in the dark grey charcoal suit and told him that it was time.

The phone started ringing less than thirty seconds after the missile had left the silo in northern Mexico.

"What the hell, Castro? It’s not even been sixty minutes," came Johnson's petrified voice.

"I felt the need to speed up your decision. Based on our last exchange, you were just stalling the inevitable and lining up a ground or air attack. This way, I strike first before you are ready to commit any of your forces to certain death. If you are currently in the white house, I advise you find quick passage to a safe area. You will however, be able to prevent a third strike on a city of our choosing if you surrender now before you head to Air Force One.”

Castro forced a long pause and he took another long puff from his cigar. There was only silence from the other end of the line until Johnson finally spoke.

"Castro, based on the trajectory, we have confirmed that your latest missile is headed straight towards DC. We have scrambled fighters to intercept it as you did not catch us off-guard this time. We will not surrender to you," Johnson said defiantly.

"It is too bad you feel that way, Señor Johnson. As such, we will show you the combined power of the other world leaders who feel oppressed by the US. We are prepared to launch missiles every thirty minutes until you surrender. So save us both time and many lives, surrender now.”

After a brief pause, “Goodbye Señor Johnson. I will accept your surrender soon," Castro placed the phone receiver down onto the cradle.

The next missile was launched on Boston exactly thirty minutes after the phone call had ended. Thirty minutes later, a forth missile was launched. After unsuccessful attempts to prevent the missile strikes, the destruction of Houston, Washington DC, Boston and New York City was all that was needed to make the United Status crumble. Before the fifth missile could be launched, President Johnson called and offered the unconditional surrender of the United States of America to Supreme Father Fidel Castro and the Northern American Communist Republic. It was June 30th, 1964.