Not Alone

by Falconer, Craig A.

  Take things as they come, Dan thought. That was it. Dan had no problem with the sentiment and scolded himself for fluffing his lines. “Right,” he said. “We’ll all take things as they come.”

  Unflustered, Godfrey closed with another word of gratitude to Dan and the people of Birchwood. “From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the rest of the world,” the Prime Minister said, “thank you.”

  Godfrey held his expression for several seconds until Dan noticed the sea of red lights in front of him fade. Before leaving for New York, Godfrey tilted his head slightly upwards and leaned towards Dan’s ear, whispering a message with none of his previous gravitas:

  “I mean it. Whatever ends up happening, at least you gave us a fighting chance.”

  D plus 18

  RMXT Studio #1

  Manhattan, New York

  Though something of a curtain raiser for the epoch-defining international discussions set to occur the following morning, the live Focus 20/20 broadcast emanating from the RMXT Studio — just a stone’s throw from the UN building — utterly captured the public’s attention. Prime Minister William Godfrey’s presence brought an air of heavyweight political legitimacy to an already combustible line up, as reflected in the unprecedented viewing figures and social media engagement metrics.

  Ordinarily, several of the panellists wouldn’t have agreed to sit in the same room for all the money in the world. The animosity between Billy Kendrick and Joe Crabbe was well known, but the two now found themselves on the same side of the argument and the same side of the long curved desk. The next seat was empty; tellingly, the production team had been unable to find another high profile personality willing to argue against The Shield.

  After Marian de Clerk’s chair in the middle came Jan Gellar, the controversial editor of The Daily Chat whose decisions to publish the video of Dan McCarthy finding the Kerguelen folder and to leak the audio of Richard Walker ordering the bugging of Dan’s house had decisively shifted public opinion against Richard when it had momentarily looked as though he might wriggle his way out of trouble. Jan’s prickly history with her neighbour, Jack Neal, was not a matter of public record; the two utterly detested each other on the back of a decade-long cold war between XPR and Blitz Media that began when Jack uncovered evidence of illegality that could easily have landed Jan in prison.

  Jack, essentially present as a proxy for President Slater, also had a less than cordial recent history with the man on his other side: William Godfrey. Godfrey in turn had long detested the regional influence of the final panellist, Timo Fiore, who was participating via satellite from his home in Varese.

  All previous dislike was left in the past, however, as panellists on both sides of the table understood that the issue at hand was too important to be sidetracked by personal grudges.

  de Clerk introduced the panellists one by one then took a moment to emphasise how unique this edition of Focus 20/20 really was; as well as being the first to focus on one topic for the full forty minutes, she explained, it was also the first ever live broadcast in the show’s storied history. Her face beamed with pride.

  Unsurprisingly, de Clerk invited William Godfrey to speak first.

  Godfrey set the tone by echoing President Slater’s statement that the launch of the first part of The Shield was potentially just months away. “The core module for China’s new space station is already set to launch in a matter of months,” he said, “and it won’t require too much re-purposing.”

  Marian de Clerk then asked Timo Fiore to share his feelings. With the breakneck pace of the discussion, no one picked up on Godfrey’s telling use of the word “won’t” rather than a conditional “wouldn’t”.

  “I’m here to contribute in any way I can,” Timo said, “whether we’re talking about a ship, a shield, or even a dedicated telescope to spot the alien home world. The only thing I won’t do is build an evacuation ship and sell tickets. You wouldn’t think I’d have to say that, but someone wrote an article saying that was my plan! What I will do is fund whatever people deem helpful, even if it’s just to show proof of concept.”

  “We appreciate all such offers,” Godfrey replied, “but I expect there’s going to be a firm consensus that no private money will be spent on The Shield. While we’re on this, the informal discussions I’ve had so far suggest that we won’t accept higher than pro rata contributions from places like Qatar, either. As Mr Fiore alluded to, this can’t become a situation where the wealthy buy influence. The sensible course of action is for active members of the international community to come together and—”

  “We’re hardly an active member of the international community,” Billy Kendrick interrupted. “Unless you count bombing everyone who doesn’t do what we say?”

  “Mr Kendrick,” Godfrey said, raising his hand along with his voice, “this isn’t about previous foreign policy. This isn’t about the past at all; this is about the future. Our collective future. And the UN building where these discussions will occur, just round the corner from here… who do you think pays for that? The United States funds 22% of the United Nations’ budget, which is more than the UK, France, Russia and China combined. So whether you agree with your government on everything or not, you can’t reasonably say that the US isn’t an active member of the international community.”

  Billy was stunned into silence; of all the things he’d expected Godfrey to do tonight, going out of his way do defend America wasn’t one of them.

  “Is this the new charm offensive?” Joe Crabbe challenged. “Pretending you don’t hate America after badmouthing us from London for so long?”

  “I’ve talked about this, Joe. There’s a difference between criticising a nation’s political class and its people. And this is all water under the bridge, anyway. Ask my friend Jack here: President Slater and I are on the same page.”

  “That certainly seems to be the case with you personally,” Marian de Clerk said, “but your Deputy Prime Minister has been making yet more questionable comments in the last hour or so.”

  Godfrey’s expression momentarily reflected his unease — he didn’t know what John Cole had said now — but he managed to remain composed. “Are you going to tell us what he said?” he asked. “Or is it a secret?”

  de Clerk looked at her notes. “His exact words were: “Of course the Americans should pay for it. While Britain stood alone, with France having fought valiantly, America joined in when the Nazi forces were tired and stretched. They’re the only ones who benefitted from the war; just look at Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan. Even to this day, their tax-dodging mega corporations do business in our countries and give nothing back. Why do you even have to ask? Of course they should pay.” His comment ended there.”

  Godfrey cleared his throat. “John and I are different people,” he said, maintaining frame. “John is John. We don’t have to personally agree on everything, and none of us have to agree with everything a nation’s leaders did in the 1940s to consider that nation a firm ally today.” Godfrey paused and smiled slightly, confident that he had found the perfect way to shut down the current discussion. “For goodness’ sake… after the United States, the two member states who provide the most UN funding are Japan and Germany!”

  Jack Neal tried to hide his own smirk; Godfrey was a political force of nature, and Jack was glad to be on his side for a change having spent too long in his sights.

  As Richard Walker had known when he anticipated Godfrey’s verbal victories over President Slater, the Prime Minister was well schooled in the lost art of classical debate; for all of his flaws, he at least understood the theory behind his words and knew how to present a coherent argument. Joe Crabbe, like his fellow shock jocks but also most modern politicians, was all presentation.

  Contrasted with his American contemporaries, who operated in a political climate where a squeezed middle-ground meant that everyone said essentially the same things with different accents at different volumes, Godfrey had earned his chops in a marked
ly more difficult environment. Britain’s recent political past meant that conservative leaders were chosen largely on their ability to sell unpopular policies to working people who wouldn’t benefit from them, so Godfrey was an even stronger debater than his predecessors and rivals.

  Jack joined the conversation at this point. “I know that a lot of people wanted the UN discussions to be televised,” he said, “but this panel has far more entertainment value. The international talks won’t be as heated as people imagine for the simple reason that no one intelligent enough to represent their nation will argue the kind of points that Joe and Billy here are continuing to regurgi—”

  “Only because politics is filled with people as demented as Godfrey and Slater,” Billy Kendrick snapped in an uncharacteristically venomous tone. “Only because of a self-selection process where only sociopaths like them and rat-faced liars like you make it through, where violence and profit are the only languages you all speak.”

  “We used to call people like you two shout-louders,” Godfrey said. “I remember an occasion during my sixth form when a particularly short-fused shout-louder lost his temper in a debate and was told to “stop behaving like an American.” People like you are the reason such stereotypes persist.”

  “Your bully-boy tactics won’t work on Billy and they won’t work on me,” Joe replied, turning away from Godfrey and towards the camera to make the rest of his point. “I know that regular people can see the truth here. As per usual, the pampered Eurocrats want to be safe but don’t want to pay anything. These champagne-swigging European socialists are never happier than when they’re spending someone else’s money.”

  Godfrey laughed heartily. “Socialist? Joe, I’ve been called a lot of things in my time…”

  “You can dress yourself up however you like,” Joe said, “but I can see through it.”

  “In that case, do you think you could perhaps spare a few moments of your wit and wisdom to convince the unions at home of my socialist credentials? Could you do that for me, Richard?” Godfrey asked. “Sorry, I meant Joe. Easy mistake.”

  “Enough,” Marian de Clerk stepped in. She looked directly into the camera. “We’ll be back after these short messages.”

  * * *

  Despite de Clerk’s best efforts to control the panellists, Focus 20/20 returned from its commercial break midway through a heated argument about the prudence of placing nuclear warheads in orbit.

  Godfrey hadn’t given any suggestion that a nuclear deterrent might eventually form part of The Shield, but senior officials in both China and Russia had. And as most now realised, the Security Council’s five permanent members had already discussed The Shield and none were likely to call for anything that didn’t have the tacit support of the other four.

  Marian de Clerk firmly ended this argument by raising her voice and knocking twice on her desk like a judge with no gavel. “We’ll start again with Billy Kendrick,” she said.

  Godfrey threw his hands in the air in a theatrical show of impatience.

  “Enough,” de Clerk ordered, quickly growing tired of repeating herself.

  “I can see that you’re not going to say anything about the nukes,” Billy said to Godfrey. “Fine. But more generally, we’ve all heard a lot about space-facing weapons this week. What I want to know is whether you’re prepared to state right now, categorically, that any agreement struck in the next few days will forbid the installation of any orbital weapons capable of striking terrestrial targets. Are you prepared to state that?”

  Godfrey held Billy’s eyes. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  “Why the hell not?” Joe Crabbe interjected.

  “Because that would be like designing a car that can’t reverse,” Godfrey said. “Whatever projectiles The Shield may one day be equipped with, we must be able to launch them in any direction. Imagine if we detected a physical threat and successfully dealt with the worst of it. Okay? Now imagine that some pieces splintered and continued towards Earth. We would need the capacity to strike again, even if the threat was inside The Shield’s orbit. That’s not controversial, it’s essential.”

  “So you want space-based weapons that can strike terrestrial targets? What happens if one nation wrestles control away from the others? This is madness,” Joe said, scanning the panel for agreement. He found it only from Billy. “This isn’t just a threat to our country from the others, it’s a threat to anyone who opposes the globalists and their shiny new toy!”

  “Come on, Joe,” Godfrey said, palms raised in a show of exasperation. “Even if we go along with your crazed conspiracy premise for the sake of argument… if your government had a domestic enemy that it deemed worthy of attacking from space, don’t you think its existing military strength could deal with that enemy using conventional methods? And as for this notion of one country seizing control of a hypothetical future weapon, it’s utter fantasy. You and your friends on internet forums seem to think that the real world is a game of Risk, or whatever you all play these days. But our very existence is threatened; that’s the core fact here. The old rules don’t apply. We’re living in a new world. All of us, together, are living in a new world.”

  The broadcast feed cut to Jack Neal desperately flipping through his notes. Jack, not having expected anything like this to come up, didn’t have a comment ready. Like a child who hadn’t been listening to his teacher, he quietly hoped that Marian de Clerk would call someone else’s name next.

  Unfortunately for Jack, de Clerk took his fidgeting as an indication that he wanted to join in. “Over to Jack Neal,” she said, keeping things rolling.

  “Uh,” Jack stammered. “On the military permutations, specifically?”

  “Everything is a military permutation,” Billy Kendrick jumped in. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “Our leaders can only relate to issues like this in military terms because our leaders are men of war. Men and women of war, I should say,” Billy added, focusing his gaze on Jack and, by proxy, President Slater.

  “It’s almost like when you meet your old friends at a funeral,” Billy continued. “That’s what it takes to unite us. But why can’t we come together on our own terms? And that’s the worst thing: I’m talking about a funeral, but no one is dead! Nothing bad has actually happened, but we’re sending weapons into space.”

  “Nothing bad has happened yet,” Godfrey noted.

  Billy reflexively chuckled at how overt Godfrey’s message had become. “This is the only time I’ll ever agree with Walker on anything,” he said directly to Godfrey, “but you, more than anyone else, are only in this for your own electability. I wish you would stop pretending this is about protecting future generations, because the future beyond your own lifetime has never mattered when it comes to cleaning the oceans or protecting the rain forests. You ignore them because they’re not populist issues.”

  “I really don’t know what you have against the idea of humanity defending ourselves,” Godfrey said, successfully projecting genuine-sounding confusion.

  “You might not know my history,” Billy said, “but I haven’t spent as long as I have campaigning against nuclear weapons only to sit back and watch as they’re put into space. You’re all falling right back into old patterns and pushing for a new cold war against an enemy we can’t even see. And just like every other war you all push for, there’s only one winner: the firms you’re all in bed with who are going to secure the big contracts, just like they always do. None of this is about safety or protection. It’s all about money. I don’t know how President Slater could sit there with a straight face and use the bank bailouts to support her argument when this whole thing is just your newest scheme to transfer public money into private hands.”

  Marian de Clerk held an open palm towards Godfrey, encouraging him to let someone else speak. Jack Neal took the opportunity to recover from his earlier stuttering: “Billy, just because we can’t see them, that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Hasn’t that been your line for
about a decade?”

  Billy sighed, exasperated with the direction of the discussion. “You always were a weasel,” he snapped at Jack, “and there you go again trying to misrepresent my words before my mouth’s closed behind them. I said the Messengers aren’t our enemies, not that they’re not there. I’m the one calling for us to look there; to look where we know they are. Look, listen, talk… you know, behave like intelligent beings? But I should have known better than to expect so much from our leaders. Christ, the elites have been making weapons we don’t need for decades and making up enemies to use them on for just as long! That isn’t just how the system works, that’s what the system is. I should have known what would happen when they stumbled across a genuine “other” like the Messengers.”

  “May I take that one?” Godfrey asked, looking at de Clerk. She nodded. “Thank you. You see, this is what it always comes down to with people like Billy and Joe: this talk of a shadowy “elite”. It’s always vague enough to protect them from scrutiny as to who exactly this “elite” is, but it appeals to the lowest common denominator and helps maintain their listenership. Everyone has to make a living, even Billy and Joe, but this isn’t the stage for their baseless conspiracy theories.”

  de Clerk turned to Billy. “Very briefly, Billy.”

  “I’m coming at this from the reasonable angle that the Messengers aren’t hostile,” he said, “because a race capable of pooling their own resources enough to achieve interstellar travel must be better than us, so why expect the worst? So from that angle, how will it look to them if we start launching weapons into orbit? Will that not make us look like a threat, which might in turn implore them to deal with us? It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

  Godfrey dismissed such concerns with a patronising shake of the head. “We’ve dropped nuclear bombs on ourselves and detonated them in space,” he said, “so it’s not like anyone who’s been watching could think we’re pacifists. And really, in your scenario where the aliens don’t want us to defend ourselves, isn’t that the ultimate reason why we should?”