Months passed. Temporarily, Melanie placed those close to her in cabinet positions. Jackie became Secretary of State, Stephanie took over the Justice Department, Admiral Hansen was named Secretary of Defense and Captain Garner, promoted to Rear Admiral, took over the fleet. Mindy took over at Health and Human Services. Mitch was given the difficult task of trying to coordinate law enforcement nationwide, which had collapsed. Fred and Al, Dave's old friends, were crisscrossing the country daily, setting up government in those states where the governors had been ousted by the citizenry. Harry, Dave, Rachel, Eileen and Joan remained in the White House as Melanie's advisors; the surviving Deer and the gladiators took positions as Senators until new ones could be elected. The courts were staffed by lawyers from Melanie's civilian army and from the Judge Advocate General's office at Annapolis--although Prof was named as temporary Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, in spite of his protests that he didn't know enough about law. John was named as Secretary of the Treasury, Conch as Secretary of the Interior. Richard Kent was given the task of dismantling some of the more abusive federal agencies, like the DEA; James Miller was put in charge of the almost-gutted FBI.

Reconstructing the infrastructure of government was a daunting task. In the weeks after the War, all countries except some in the Middle East--most notably, Saudi Arabia--recognized Melanie's government as legitimate. Great Britain, Germany, Israel, and Japan offered task forces to assist in setting up the government and their help was gratefully accepted. Gallagher and hundreds of other corporate executives were arrested; many of their companies, most notable Gallagher Enterprises, collapsed. The Japanese and others were investigating the charges that women had been sold as slaves to their own corporate executives; arrests were made, the surviving women were freed and returned to the US. Even though the Saudis had closed their embassy, Melanie's government made a demand that they return the women who had been sold to them as slaves. Fearful of the actions of an unknown government, they agreed--and they dumped an astounding seventeen thousand American women in the Sinai desert in Egypt. The Egyptians and the Israelis ferried them home.

The Republicans nominated a businessman--one untainted by the scandals--for the Presidency. The Democrats and the Libertarians declined to do so, instead throwing their support behind Senator Oshasi's spontaneous nomination of Melanie; she protested this, saying that she was far too inexperienced and in the second place she was constitutionally ineligible, she was too young. An amendment was passed striking down the requirement, and a slate with Melanie for President and Harry as her Vice-President appeared on the November ballot.

They were elected by landslide, garnering more than eighty percent of the popular vote.

The romance between Melanie and Dave continued, but at the same time Dave had developed a very close relationship with elfin Joan, and not rarely they all three found themselves in the same bed. Stephanie, Mindy, and the other gladiators were all free enough and open enough about their sexuality to occasionally cause small scandals of their own. Stephanie in particular was luxuriating in being free from the constraints Jackson had put on her for the past ten years, and she didn't really care who knew about it. Harry and Rachel, sometimes teased as being old-fashioned, nevertheless remained persistently monogamous.

January arrived, and Inauguration Day dawned cold and overcast; a light snow was falling as a limo rolled in carrying Melanie, Dave, Joan, Harry, Rachel and Eileen. A very large crowd had gathered to witness the swearing-in of the first woman President. Melanie and the others got out of the car wearing full-length heavy coats; as they walked to the podium they were shielded by umbrellas held by Marine guards, who remained in place as they stood for the swearing-in--which was to be conducted by Prof, in his role as acting Supreme Court Chief Justice. Melanie looked out over the crowd, a sea of umbrellas. In the front row were dozens of her friends and comrades: Stephanie, Mindy, Jackie, Mitch, Taylor Hansen, Barry Garner, James Miller, Conch. The military men were in full-dress uniform; just about all the others wore the same type of long heavy coat Melanie was wearing. As Prof began the swearing-in, all six of those on the podium removed the heavy coats. Dave was wearing a tuxedo; Harry was dressed in his camouflage Ranger garb. The four women were all completely nude. Following suit, Stephanie, Mindy, and hundreds of others in the assembled crowd took off their coats as well and stood naked in solidarity with Melanie. Melanie and Harry took their oaths; then, her skin turning pink from the cold, Melanie stepped forward to give her speech.

"This," she opened, "will be brief. We do not want any cases of frostbite today!" Everyone laughed; she pressed on with her opening remarks, which were indeed brief. "We do not know at this time," she told the crowd, "if it will be necessary to impose an income tax on Americans again. Time will tell, and you can be assured that nothing like that will be done without a full discussion of the issues and the full input of the American people. At the moment, the government is fiscally sound. We have recovered funds embezzled from the government during the past administration, and we have confiscated funds earned illegally by corporations such as Gallagher, and that has left us with a multi-billion dollar surplus at the moment. As might be expected, though, the funds coming in to the government through what were normal channels are far down. The Preserve is closed, the TV shows are off the air, women are no longer being sold to corporations, the gladiatorial games are not being held, and the government brothels are almost empty. Only the casinos continue to earn money as before.

"I have held talks," she continued, "with Mr. Phil Phips and the producers of the 'Slaughterhouse' show, and with the organizers of the gladiatorial games. I have assured them that they are in no danger of being prosecuted; the producers of 'Slaughterhouse' were not doing anything which was illegal under the existing laws at the time. Neither were the organizers of the gladiatorial games.

"Since the death penalty remains suspended--and will remain so unless Congress passes new legislation, and I can guarantee you that new legislation re-establishing the death penalty will be vetoed--it will no longer be possible for the government to realize income from the sales of condemned prisoners to the film industry and to television. However, there is no reason for us not to make money on what has already been done and cannot be undone.

"Accordingly, I have informed these parties that the games may begin again, and the very popular 'Slaughterhouse!' may again be aired--at first, at least, as 'reruns,' and we have negotiated a royalty to be paid to the government each time a segment showing a prisoner condemned by the government is aired. This will not of course equal the huge revenues derived from this in the past, but should be a steady source of income for a while." She looked directly at Conch. "Mechanisms will be put in place," she went on, "to handle protests from living relatives of the executed who do not want those segments aired again." She brushed back her hair. "It is possible, too, that 'Slaughterhouse!' may again show live executions, although the government would receive no financial benefit from this." She put her hands on the podium and leaned over it. "Because, henceforth, anyone being executed on 'Slaughterhouse!' or for any other entertainment purpose will be there because she or he has volunteered for it, and any payments to be made will be made to that person and his or her beneficiaries, not to the government. We feel that people should be free to choose what they want, and so we do not plan to prohibit such volunteerism--but there will be safeguards in place from the beginning. We do understand that there will be last-minute withdrawals. The promoters must find ways to deal with this. You may believe that such volunteerism will not happen. Perhaps not. I for one think it will.

"Similarly, we believe that those who choose to fight in the arena have the right to do so. The games may be held, and, here, because the government already owns many of the facilities--like RFK Stadium here in Washington--some government revenues may be realized from these. But the same standards, the same safeguards--strict volunteerism--will apply here.

"We have also decided," she went on, "to reopen the Preserve at Isla de la Muerta. This may surprise you, but perhaps it will not when I explain that the women who are there to be hunted will also be volunteers, and will be well-paid for their terms there--which will be much shorter than ten years. We believe the Preserve, in particular, can operate on such a volunteer basis--in part because there will be a major difference: the women will be permitted limited arms. For example, the hunters can use compound bows, but the women will have recurve bows and be using the same arrows. A man may hunt there, but he should know--the prey will no longer be Deer. They will be lionesses."

She closed her remarks and allowed Dave to put the coat back over her shoulders. The other women put theirs on as well, in many cases very quickly. As she started to descend the podium, a reporter with a microphone managed to get through the line of Marine guards and ran up to her.

"Madam President!" he called. "Please, tell us--what is Mr. O'Neill's title to be? First Gentleman?"

She cocked her head. "Hm. Interesting question. He's not much of a gentleman, believe me. First husband won't do, we're not married. First boyfriend? Sounds a little juvenile. First man? No, too general. First lover? That might be okay." She touched her lower lip with her knuckle and feigned deep thought. "First stud? First hunk?"

Dave rolled his eyes. "Would you please," he said, "shut up and come here?"

She smiled at him. "Of course," she said, and she allowed him to fold her into his arms.