The physical and mental reset had taken less than ninety seconds. An investment well worth making.
Now… think.
Kilmer tried to synthesize what he had heard so far. Nielsen’s chronology had been helpful, but…
But what? Something seemed… missing. Had something been omitted? Glossed over? Concealed?
No, that’s not it. I have a million questions, of course, but lots of details are always missing at this stage.
Then what was bothering him? Did he still suspect that this was all just a test—or some charade—and that at any moment it would be revealed that there were, in fact, no aliens?
No. The people assembled for this meeting were too important, and the conversation they were having was entirely genuine. The problem wasn’t the missing details. The problem wasn’t the aliens.
It’s something else. Something isn’t quite right.
~ 7 ~
Vice President Nielsen scanned the room to make sure everyone was following along. The group had been fixated on him as he spoke, but they now took a moment to glance at each other. They saw in the faces of their colleagues a blend of emotions that they recognized as also being their own. Shock. Angst.
Nielsen continued. “As of last night, the alien spacecraft was less than 150,000 miles from Earth. For reference, the Moon is about 250,000 miles away. If you’ve been running the numbers, you know that the spacecraft is slowing down as it approaches Earth. It covered approximately 450 million miles in the first week after its detection. The fastest man-made objects in space would have taken one and a half years to travel that distance. In the last two days, the alien spacecraft has traveled only 125,000 miles. We have no intel, obviously, on why they’ve slowed down. We also don’t know whether they really plan to rendezvous at Station Zero. We only—”
Nielsen paused.
“My apologies. Some of you are not regulars, and you might not be following the lingo I’m using. Over the last two weeks, some new words have entered our lexicon, and it will be helpful for you to know the vocabulary.”
Nielsen provided a two-minute crash course on the new jargon. He explained that, apart from the CIA, where they still insisted on using the term “extra-terrestrials,” everyone else was referring to the visitors as “aliens.” The president’s inner circle was referred to as “the team.” The larger group of Americans who were in the know were referred to as “the loop.” The mathematical language that was being used to communicate with the incoming aliens was christened FERMAT—named, tongue-in-cheek, for the mathematician who had popularized the method of “proof by infinite descent.” Shenandoah National Park was being called “Station Zero.” The foreign heads of state who were aware of the crisis were “the alliance.” To distinguish between actions taken by human beings versus those taken by the aliens, the terms “Earth-side” and “Space-side” were occasionally used. Most ominously, a distinction was now being made between the possibility of an alien “attack” and an alien “invasion.” None of these were official terminology. There had been no committee, no executive decree, and no official memo. The words had just taken hold.
“Now,” said Nielsen, “let me get back on track. As I said, we have no idea why the aliens have slowed down. We have a wide range of hypotheses, but no way to test most of them. If we’re lucky, the aliens are just being cautious. Or perhaps they’re incapable of landing on Earth. Or they only wish to study us from afar. Hell, for all we know, they’re sitting there wondering why we haven’t come up to say hello. Those are all best-case scenarios.
“If we’re unlucky, the spacecraft could be conducting reconnaissance in preparation for an attack. They might be waiting for reinforcements before they launch an invasion. Perhaps they’re calibrating or deploying a weapon system that we can’t even imagine, and they want to be a safe distance away when they blow us to smithereens.
“Of course, there are many hypotheses that lie in between the extremes—some more plausible than others. For example, it’s possible that the aliens plan to cover the remaining distance in smaller crafts that we can’t detect. On the less plausible end of the spectrum… well, I don’t want to make too many assumptions here, but I don’t think they just ran out of gas.”
Nielsen again drew some chuckles, but not everyone was amused. NSA Garcia responded with a none-too-subtle shaking of the head. “Damn it, Garcia, that was funny,” Nielsen complained. He allowed the smile to leave his face before continuing. “Now, let me tell you why we’re here.”
The vice president explained that at 5 p.m. the previous evening—on Day 14—Defense Secretary Strauss had called President Whitman to discuss the possibility of launching a “visible response” to the attack on the Moon. Strauss wanted the president to respond to the provocation “with our own show of force.” Whitman subsequently called General Allen to get his views on the matter, and Allen told the president he saw merit in discussing the proposal. “It’s risky, for obvious reasons, and we should avoid anything that might provoke a conflict—but it could be equally dangerous if we look like sitting ducks.”
At 7:30 p.m., President Whitman met with her team. She made it clear that time was of the essence, but that she would not make a final decision until the following day. “Whatever we might think tonight, I want to be sure that it still makes sense to us tomorrow. I also want a few more voices to weigh in on this. We have a healthy range of perspectives here, but what makes sense to us might seem unreasonable to others—and I want to know if there are things we have failed to consider.”
Whitman told the group that she also intended to speak to the international alliance the following day, and that close to a consensus might be required before Earth-side behaved in a way that might be provocative. At 9:30 p.m., she ended the meeting and told Nielsen to lead the following day’s discussion. “I won’t attend the meeting,” she told him, “because I don’t want my presence to influence the discussion. Nor do I want people in the room to know which way I’m leaning. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Nielsen replied. “Although, to be honest, I’m not sure even I know which way you’re leaning.”
“Then I’m doing a good job,” Whitman said without even a hint of a smile.
This was followed by some light-hearted banter among the team about which way Whitman might be leaning. Whitman put an end to it after CIA Director Druckman joked that Whitman was leaning toward sending the aliens a map of the Korean Peninsula and the coordinates for Pyongyang.
“Okay, that’s enough. Everyone out.”
As the group was leaving, Whitman asked VP Nielsen and Chief of Staff Perez to stay back so they could discuss a separate matter. Twenty minutes later, Perez returned to his office to set up phone calls with the alliance for the following afternoon. Nielsen went to his office to make a few calls of his own.
* * * * * * * * * *
“That’s where things stand,” Nielsen announced to everyone around the table. Then he rose from his chair.
“We have a decision to make—today. Defense Secretary Strauss is proposing a show of force that would signal to the aliens that we’re not entirely defenseless. If we’re going to act on that proposal—or on any variation of the idea—it must be done very soon. President Whitman wants to know where we stand before she raises the idea with the alliance—a process that is likely to introduce its own delays.
“The president understands that she’s asking a lot of each of you. No one wants to cast the decisive vote in what might end up being the wrong call. But she asked me to make something very clear: you’re not here to vote. Only one person will have to live with having made this decision. That person is the president of the United States.”
Nielsen could see the gravity of the situation weighing heavily on everyone. He wanted to lighten their load, even if just a little, so that they could have a productive discussion. Then, remembering some advice he had received years ago, he smiled, and his gaze shifted slightly upward.
“A professor
of mine once said something that I’d like to share with you,” he told the group. “Don’t reward people for coming up with the right answer. Reward them for coming up with good arguments. Only good arguments can guide you to the right answer.
“That is our challenge. To unearth every good argument. I don’t care if you’re for or against the proposal—I want to know how you’re thinking about it. Don’t censor yourself, even if the second point you want to make seems to contradict the first point you made. If you have an idea, share it. If you agree or disagree with someone, now is the time to tell us. The very existence of tomorrow depends on your willingness to speak up today.”
The group was nodding along, and the little pep talk seemed to have calmed some nerves. Nielsen looked toward the camera on the wall and gave a friendly nod of appreciation. Thank you, Professor, for that useful bit of wisdom.
Then he sat down and slapped the table with both palms, making it clear that his lecture had ended. “That is all. Let’s get to work.”
He looked at the secretary of defense. “Strauss, please get us started. Tell us what you’re proposing and why.”
~ 8 ~
For about twenty seconds, Professor Kilmer had allowed himself to feel flattered. A former student—the vice president of the United States, no less—was quoting him at a pivotal moment in history. When Nielsen smiled at him through the camera, Kilmer almost nodded back at the screen to acknowledge it. You’re welcome.
But apart from those twenty seconds of mild delight, what Kilmer had been feeling was nothing close to joy. Anxiety? Fear? Whatever it was, he had to push the emotion aside so he could focus on the task at hand.
Much harder to push aside, however, was the grating suspicion that something just wasn’t right. What is it?
He glanced over at the three agents. Art, Silla, and Lane were observing the meeting as though nothing was wrong. They looked concerned, of course, but that was to be expected. Kilmer was concerned as well—and had been throughout the meeting—except for those twenty seconds during which he had managed to get his mind off the aliens.
Get his mind off the aliens.
The words Art had spoken returned in a flash and struck him like a lead pipe to the skull.
You know that whole thing I told you about there being an alien invasion? Well, that’s not even the part that’s really going to blow your mind.
At the time, Kilmer had figured Agent Capella was simply being melodramatic. But that wasn’t it. Art had meant what he said. He’d even tried to stop himself from saying it.
Suddenly, the pieces started to fit together.
The explanation. The meeting. The deadline. The alliance. The camera. The clock. The laptop.
All of it.
The incongruities began to harmonize. Not completely, but just enough.
Things were not what they seemed.
Even Vice President Nielsen, smiling at him through the camera… he had misunderstood it entirely.
Kilmer felt a chill run up his spine.
~ 9 ~
After VP Nielsen handed things over to Strauss, the defense secretary held the floor for about seven minutes, during which time he advocated methodically for a vivid display of Earth-side strength. No matter how one tried to explain the lunar attack, he argued, it was impossible not to see it as a show of force by the aliens. “Why show off your weapons unless you are trying, at a bare minimum, to establish that you are the alpha dog in the relationship? We do it too. Speak softly and carry a big stick. Teddy Roosevelt sent sixteen battleships around the globe for everyone to see for only one reason: to make it clear that there was a new sheriff in town. And frankly, that’s the best-case scenario here. The other possibility is that we’re being tested—the way Khrushchev tested Kennedy, by putting nukes and missiles in Cuba. There isn’t a Russian general alive who will deny the fact that if Kennedy hadn’t pushed back, Khrushchev would have gotten even more aggressive. The Soviets would have taken West Berlin—and it wouldn’t have stopped there. That’s the kind of thing we might be dealing with here.”
Strauss rested his case with a passionate rendition of one of the classics: Chamberlain at Munich.
“Humanity has learned what happens when you fail to stand up to early acts of aggression. Hitler annexed Austria. No one pushed back. So, he demanded the Sudetenland. Chamberlain made a big show of negotiating a compromise with Hitler—but when he went to Munich, he agreed to just about everything Hitler wanted. Britain and France practically forced the Czechoslovakians to hand over a piece of their country to Hitler. And in return for what? Hitler’s assurance that he wanted nothing more. Of course, Hitler then went ahead and took all of Czechoslovakia. Still no retaliation. So Hitler invaded Poland. The British and French finally woke up, but the damage was already done. The only option left was total war—the deadliest war in our planet’s history!”
By the time Strauss had ended his walk down Munich Lane, he was pretty worked up. But his words had a palpable effect. No one seemed eager to follow on the heels of the secretary’s fervent speech.
Energy Secretary Rao asked what, specifically, Strauss was proposing. What would an Earth-side “show of force” entail?
One of Strauss’s DoD colleagues answered. “Secretary Rao, there is a range of options, but we believe that it would have to be the detonation of a nuclear weapon in space. Ideally, it would be on the surface of the Moon itself, to make our signal crystal clear—but that will not be easy to do on short notice. If we remove the Moon from our list of targets, then we are left with an explosion somewhere in empty space where the alien spacecraft might be able to witness or detect it. We have no intel on the types of instruments they can use to detect a nuclear blast, so there is a case to be made that it should be made visible to them, albeit at a safe distance.”
National Security Advisor Garcia spoke next, and she was against the idea. “I agree with Secretary Strauss that the lunar incident might represent a Space-side show of force. However, we should consider the motivation behind it. It’s true that Khrushchev would have felt emboldened if Kennedy didn’t push back during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but Khrushchev was himself reacting to aggressive actions that the US had taken even earlier. Whatever else he was after, Khrushchev was driven primarily by his own sense of insecurity. Which brings us to what the aliens have done. Is it possible that their show of force is defensive in nature? Maybe they’re afraid that we will harm them unless they show their strength.”
The discussion broadened widely at that point, with many people weighing in. “We don’t need to get into a pissing contest before we even know what’s going on here,” someone counseled at one point.
“With all due respect, that is not what Secretary Strauss is advocating,” CIA Director Druckman countered. “We just want the extra-terrestrials to know that we’re not an easy target. If they bomb the closest thing to Earth and our response is to do nothing, they might conclude that they have the license to take the next step as well. Even if they did drop their bombs only out of fear, they’re still testing us. We don’t want to instigate a war, but how does it help to hide the fact that we have some defensive capabilities? The way I see it, if they can annihilate us from space, we don’t stand a chance anyway. But if they want to invade and attempt an occupation, we might be able to put up a fight. I would want them to know that before they make such a decision.”
“And what makes you think we can defeat them if the fighting takes place on Earth?” NSA Garcia asked.
“I’m not saying we can defeat them. But we don’t have to be as strong as them to deter an invasion. We’ve learned that lesson many times ourselves—that even a much weaker enemy can wage an effective resistance campaign. Vietnam. Somalia. Afghanistan. Iraq. I don’t see why we should hide the fact that we can fight to the end if necessary. It might be enough to deter an invasion—if that’s what they’re planning.”
General Allen asked to speak next. Until that point, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of S
taff had been leaning back, taking in the conversation. He now sat up, back straight, and placed both palms on the table.
“This has been a helpful discussion. I have heard the arguments in favor of a show of force, and I think they’re quite compelling. I really do. But practically, I don’t see how we can execute on the plan without a substantial risk that the aliens will think we’re launching an attack. If we detonate a nuclear weapon in space, close enough to their spacecraft to ensure it’s visible to them, they might think it was a shot across the bow—or worse, that we tried to hit them and missed. I agree that seeming weak could encourage them to be more ambitious, but the risk of unwanted escalation weighs more heavily in my analysis.
“Finally—and despite my belief that a show of force is too risky at this time—I would like to add a word of caution in the other direction as well. NSA Garcia has made a good point—that we should not assume the worst when it comes to alien intentions—but I have seen enough carnage in my life to know that giving the other side the benefit of the doubt will sometimes get you killed. We must not let our guard down, no matter which course of action we choose today.”
Dr. Menon, chief scientist at NASA, steered the conversation in a different direction. “If I may, I would like to offer a science-based perspective. I’d like you to think about the amount of energy—or, if you prefer, the level of technological sophistication—that is required to travel the way these aliens have done. Consider the distances covered and the speeds at which they have moved. These beings are, conservatively speaking, hundreds of years ahead of us in this domain. Given what we have already seen, do you consider it at all possible that the lunar explosions we detected two days ago represent anything close to their maximum military capability? That is inconceivable to me.
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