CHAPTER 4
“Mr. President, this could lead to another war. One that would make the Asian War look like a picnic.” Speaking to the president of the United States was his secretary of state, Taimi Gierow. Gierow, a long-time Washington insider, was in the US Senate in 2050 when the tensions in Asia over some obscure islands that both China and Japan claimed as their own came to a head and resulted in a US aircraft carrier being sunk and the first nuclear weapon being used in wartime since over a century before. If the crazy leader in North Korea hadn’t taken advantage of a distracted China and USA to attack the south—and drop an atomic bomb on the South Korean city of Daejeon—then either the USA or China might have seriously considered using their own nuclear weapons. But when they saw the horrific images coming out of South Korea, they put their differences about some minor islands aside and instead combined forces to eliminate a very real, credible threat to world peace—North Korea. Today, just fifteen years later, Kremic and Gierow didn’t want to see the strides made since that dreadful day reversed because of the object found in deep space.
President Kremic, seated at his desk in the newly renovated Oval Office, couldn’t agree more. Kremic stroked his salt and pepper colored beard, tastefully clipped short and covering only his chin and just to the right and left of his mouth. This was one of his poker tells, which he was consciously aware of doing when he was thinking of options. And which he had to carefully watch and not do when in negotiations with foreign leaders who were no doubt fully briefed on each and every one of his habits.
“Yes, it very well could lead to war. If this is indeed an alien spacecraft and we can learn its secrets, then we’ll be far ahead of any potential adversary technologically. So far ahead as to make everyone else in the world irrelevant. If we aren’t the ones to learn its secrets and China does, or, heaven forbid, India, then we may very well be looking at the last gasp of American world leadership—our very survival will be at stake.”
“Yes, sir. I understand. But are you sure you don’t want to at least reach out to China?”
“We can’t partner with China. Japan is paranoid enough as it is. If we lose Japan on this, then they might shut the door on the space solar power agreement. You know what’s at stake here. They’ve managed to reach Carbon Zero because of their power stations, and I’m going to do the same here. We can’t afford to piss off the people who’ve got the technology and expertise to make that happen.”
“Consider the matter closed.”
“Get Ranjith in here. I need to know what the competition looks like on this. And ask both Administrator Fuqua and General Compton to be on standby as well. Fuqua isn’t going to like my decision on who’s running the show for the mission and I need to tell him personally.”
“Yes, sir. I expected you’d want to hear from intelligence, so I asked Ranjith to be nearby. I’ll call him.”
Secretary Gierow looked away from President Kremic momentarily and activated her implanted comlink. The president couldn’t hear exactly what she was saying, but that was okay. He was thinking about the alien spacecraft, its social implications and the greatest worry that his military planners mentioned at every opportunity, its intentions—which were entirely unknown.
Is it long-abandoned and a derelict? Is it active and friendly? Or hostile? And how will it react when our ship approaches unannounced? When multiple uncooperative Earth ships arrive?
Kremic’s thoughts raced to his morning brief and what it contained about the public’s reaction. Immediately after his speech announcing the discovery of the Artifact, the response was muted. No panic. No riots. But yesterday, the world’s stock markets tanked, led by just about every technology stock imaginable—from telecommunications to aerospace, investors appeared to have lost confidence in humanity’s ability to make money from near-term inventions and gadgets when technology that could make every consumer item obsolete was potentially sitting out in space, waiting to be accessed.
The large double door to the room opened, admitting the Director of Intelligence, Ranjith Yoshi. Kremic could see both Administrator Fuqua and General Compton talking in the waiting area to the right outside the door. Both men were pacing. Taimi Gierow acting with her usual efficiency, he thought.
“Ranjith, come on in and have a seat,” said Kremic as he rose from behind his desk and moved to join him and Gierow on the more casual couch and chair in the center of the room. This wasn’t a decisional meeting, so he didn’t need to keep it quite as formal. There’s nothing quite as intimidating as talking to the president of the United States when he is seated behind his desk, Kremic knew.
“Mr. President, Ms. Gierow.” Yoshi nodded in greeting and joined them in sitting at the small wooden table around which many such conversations had taken place over the years.
“What’s the latest on the competition?”
“The alien is going to need some traffic control out there, unfortunately. Our best guess is that there will be three ships. One from us, one from China and, unfortunately, one from India. You told him that the Chinese leadership really wants to be part of our team?” Yoshi looked at Gierow for confirmation.
“She told me and I said no.”
“I’m sure you have a good reason. But that won’t stop them from sending their own ship. They’ve made a lot of progress on their nuclear thermal propulsion system and my people tell me that it might actually be a bit faster and more efficient than our own.”
“What about their military?”
“Firmly in charge. Any guise of this being a civilian effort is out the window. I suspect the crew will include active military personnel as well as a civilian scientist or two. My sources also tell me that they’ll be bringing along a tactical nuke in case things go south.”
“Not unexpected. So will we.”
Gierow’s eyebrow raised immediately. Yoshi appeared nonplussed.
“Sir? Is that a good way to begin negotiating with a foreign power? Go knocking on a stranger’s door with a gun in hand?” Gierow asked.
“Not now, Taimi. I’ve made the decision and we’ll have that discussion in our next meeting. Go on, Ranjith.”
“Yes, sir. I suspect the Chinese decision to bring a nuke might have a lot to do with India. We have good intel that they’re prepping their own rocket for a rendezvous as well. They don’t have a nuclear propelled ship so they’re planning to repurpose their two-seat Moon ship for the trip. They’re going to refuel in Earth orbit, add an extra chemical stage and brute force their way to the party. Getting reliable information from India these days is like bobbing for apples, but my instincts are that they’ll also come with a nuke.”
“And start an interstellar war in the process! We can’t fumble our first contact with an alien race, a likely vastly technologically superior alien race, by nuking them!” said Gierow.
“Taimi, we’re not having that discussion right now. Save it.” Kremic was now getting clearly annoyed by his secretary of state.
“Yes, sir,” said Gierow.
“The Russians are still playing with us?” asked President Kremic.
“Well, since they joined the European Union, they’re technically playing with the Europeans who are playing with us and Japan. So, yes, sir, our allies are still all together. We’re just working out who gets to go from each country.”
“That’s it?”
“Not exactly. The Caliphate is making a great deal of noise about the alien ship being demonic. There’s a lot of activity at the Kuwait Missile Center. We think they’re readying a missile to strike the alien ship.”
“Well that’s just dandy. We know this for sure?”
“Almost one hundred percent certain, sir. They don’t have the capability to send people, but, according to the army’s Missile and Space Intelligence Center, the Caliphate can get a low-yield nuclear weapon to the alien ship using one of their Scimitar Rockets.”
“The timing? When can they launch?”
“They have a lot to do to get their ICBM converted to operate in deep space, so it likely won’t be able to launch until well after our teams are on the way. I’m not sure where the Indians will be, probably somewhere after us and China but ahead of the Caliphate.”
“Get with the secretary of defense. I want to know what options are available to stop the Caliphate’s launch. Everything short of what might start another war.”
“Yes, sir.”
“At least the public is taking it well. I never expected to be the one to announce we found aliens. I half anticipated riots or something. That’s what always seems to happen in the movies.”
“Well, the Department of Homeland Security is warning that a few fringe groups might want to use our finding of the Artifact as an excuse to protest, but there aren’t any serious threats of violence here or anywhere else. The world population seems to have taken the news rather nonchalantly. All except for the Caliphate, of course.”
“It helps that whatever the hell this thing is, it hasn’t done anything yet. All it would take to unsettle everyone would be some sort of contact. ‘Take me to your leader,’ or some such bullshit. Let’s hope that whoever built this thing is long dead or gone.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Send in Administrator Fuqua and General Compton. I need to let them know my decision about who’s in charge of this mission and NASA isn’t going to like it . . .”