by Tom Tryst
Baker knows the Counsel is speaking through the ‘droid. “However,” it continues, “We have been monitoring your progress, for we are still concerned. After heartfelt consideration, The Universal Council has come to the conclusion that your current situation is our fault. When you revolted, we simply retreated, leaving you in a situation we had developed. The communal systems we had developed and implemented was meant to be temporary, to assure our disruption would not cause some to hunger and die. We would have gradually reverted your society to your old systems, but with drastic improvements.”
There is a long pause, the 99 continues, “Your government is not the only one struggling with the communal system we established. While we were here, we assured the exchanges went smoothly. When we left, you were unable - and in some cases, unwilling - to continue the system. We now know it was simply too complicated for humans to control. We hope to rectify our misjudgement.
“Let me assure you, we are not going to reoccupy Earth. What we offer in Universal brotherhood is a way you can effectively continue the distribution of life-giving goods through what you would call a ‘computer program.’ If you agree, we will set up ‘computer’ control centers around the world, all interconnected reestablishing the program as it was when we suddenly departed. Our Peace Keepers, limited to one for each center, will help you operate the system. When you no longer need that help, the Peace Keepers will depart, leaving you again on your own, but this time with the ability to provide to all.
“In addition, there is a program the world can follow to return the Earth to your original trading methods, an equitable program fair to all nations. Every other government in the world is likewise being addressed. We know you will want to discuss this among yourselves. Or even have a world conference regarding our offer. Should the Earth unanimously accept our offer, we will beam down the units along with an android to train you in its operation. They will not be Peace Keepers, having no ability to transport. They will be capable of maintaining the unit. You may keep them indefinitely.
They will not be what you call ‘spies;’ we have other ways of keeping track of your progress, and you can order them to leave Earth if you feel that you no longer need them. Your decision. We are reasonably sure that many of you have regretted the military action in an attempt to evict the Peace Keepers, as well as the disastrous results. We hope your future actions will not be as foolish.
“In discussing this among yourselves, remember that all the ‘computers’ are interconnected and calls for actions that are harmonious worldwide. No country will have an advantage over any other country. The actual conversion to monetary trade will not begin until all nations are ready. It will call for a worldwide currency. We also advise you that mankind will not be able to convert to free trade without subsequent wars and human suffering. To make such a change in a short period of time is beyond your mental and social abilities.”
There is another long pause, and Baker is about to ask a question when 99 continues. “Your Peace keeper will stay with you to answer all your questions. We will again address you in seven of your days. We hope to have your answer then. We wish you peace.”
The android turned slightly to be directly facing Baker. “We are 99. We are programed to stay with you. We can answer any questions you may have.”
They have many questions. For the next hour, they grill the ‘droid, then at Baker’s command, they break to reconvene when the other members of The Cabinet arrive.
The next morning, Victor is waiting for Daniel and his team to report for their day’s duty. Unusual for him, he is in full ‘Class A’ uniform, ribbons and all, rather than the khakis with the only addition being the silver leaves on the collar, indicating his rank as a lieutenant colonel. He has news for all.
“The Peace Keepers are back,” he announces without a preamble, then adds, “but not in force. A single one suddenly appeared at the White House. Apparently the same one that was with President Baker before.”
“What the hell do they want now?” demands Daniel.
“They have an offer,” Victor continues. “A single Peace Keeper has shown up at every government in the world, with the same message given to President Baker. I don’t have all the details yet; it seems that they contacted the White House but not the Pentagon. They apparently don’t look at Pentagon as the ruling class. Anyway, what I can gather is that they offer to smooth way out our communal system while providing a path to return to the old trade system.”
“There isn’t one here, on the grounds?” Sherry asks.
Victor shakes his head. “Just at the capital of every country. Then just one. If you know how many governments there are, then you know how many ‘droids beamed down. Their usual trick; they just abruptly appear.”
“We’re you given any orders?” Daniel wants to know.
“Just to secure the Compound for the time being. Nothing in or out. We are on high alert. The Universal Council will contact Earth again in a week - from last night. I guess to see if we want to accept the offer.”
“Which is?” Charles inquires, his usual skeptic.
“No details yet. Supposedly to get Earth back to monetary trade. The Pentagon promises a full report on the incident. Hopefully with some instructions. For now, except for staying on full alert, it’s business as usual.”
Charles addresses Daniel, “Any instructions from Washington?”
“This is the first I’ve heard.”
“No wonder the military took over,” he grumbles.
“I’ll make an inquiry,” Daniel promises. “They should have some instructions. As soon as I hear anything, we’ll have a meeting. We can go from there.”
“I’ll keep you all posted,” Victor promises, rising. “I’ve got to get back to camp. Let the troops know what’s going on.”
“Thanks for the ‘heads up,’ Vic,” Sherry calls out as he heads for the door.
Victor just waves without looking back.
Only a few days have passed since the invasion. Tabitha still hasn’t learned what really transpired other than what she and the other lookouts observed. Even with her occasional lookout assignments, she still has time from her regular duties to take her beloved walks through the woods. Her usual companion if Donna, and infrequently Victor, joins her. Today, she is alone.
Her usual outing is a now well worn trail that roughly circles around the wooded center of The Compound, avoiding the farms, the Village and the Army camp. To make the full circuit, measured to be 6.2 miles, takes an easy, pleasant two hours. The walk is dominated by old growth oak with occasional small, open meadows, passing two ponds and crossing one stream - twice.
Only three times does the wandering trail come close to the perimeter and any of the lookout sites. Each of those times, the trail has been commandeered by the gravel access road for a short distance, then the trail continues.
Halfway through her walk, she comes to one of the small openings in the wooded canopy where sunshine beams through, encouraging the growth of underbrush. She has often picked berries there. She immediately sees a difference; one corner of the clearing has been stripped bare, the dark soil exposed, evidence of recent digging.
She leaves the trail to get a closer look. The cleared area is about 40 feet in circumference. The outer edges has grass and weeds still poking through the loose soil; the immediate center is barren soil. Obviously, a large hole has been dug, then the soil filled back in, the ground smoothed level. A very large hole.
She takes an involuntary gasp of breath as she suddenly realizes what - or rather who - is buried here. She hastily hurries back to the trail and back to the Village, cutting her walk short.
Two days after the appearance of the Peace Keepers, the United Nations called for an emergency meeting to discuss this new turn of events. It was a call for every leader of every world government to attend, which includes the many nations who have boycotted the organization. While the headquarters is in New York City, most will ‘attend’ via video conferen
cing, for air travel is still strictly limited, even nonexistent for many small countries.
Every government has been given the same information through the Peace Keeper appearing to them - and who remains. The Universal Council will speak through them and presumably answer questions that arise.
By the time of the meeting, every nation still functioning had logged in. Prior to the time of the special session, each Peace Keeper delivered a document to the leader of the government, in their official language, outlining specifically what the computerized system will do for society. They use the term ’computer’ as the closest to describing the electronic system they are offering.
The message from the Universal Council is brief, referring to the written documents all received, adding only the promise that they have no intent of again ‘taking over.’ The speaker referred all questions to the androids assigned to them, assuring they are speaking for the Council.
However, the session continued well into the night without even a hint of the general consensus. They will gather again in two days, leaving Earth with just three days to make up their collective minds as to whether they will accept the offer.
Both Victor, as the commanding officer of The Compound, and Daniel, as the director of the research team, have transcripts of the original message and subsequent messages from the Universal Council. Victor has also provided a transcript of the demands by Pentagon that must be fulfilled before they will return power to Washington.
Daniel calls a special meeting, this time in the Town Hall, open to all. Almost the entire population attends, including all soldiers not on duty. While Victor is technically in charge of the entire Compound, he defers chairmanship to Daniel, who the people see as their leader. But he is on stage with Daniel, as is Sherry as Mayor of Glen Haven.
Prior to the meeting, both the document from the aliens and the document from the Pentagon was posted on the Bulletin Board, the electronic message center. Anyone taking the time to read both understands the issue: Do we trust the aliens?; Do we want them involved in our future?
At the end of an often contentious three-hour session, by a show of hands, the vote was ‘no’ to both questions.
While most citizens chose to crowd into The Tavern after the meeting, Daniel and his team of supervisors return to his office in the Computer Center, Victor joining them.
Again, Daniel takes the lead. “About the vote,” he begins, “You have to realize that our people have it good here. It is a different world outside the fence. Here, we are satisfied with our lifestyle. Most of us see the change from being a communal society back to the way it was as a threat to our existence. Naturally, we are anxious about any change. For the rest of the world, any change is better than what they have - or don’t have. I would expect the world at large to want the help. While we voted ‘no’, I’m pretty sure those outside would have voted ‘yes.’ As to the trust issue, I don’t think anyone trusts the aliens.”
Charles speaks up. “You’ve got that right. We still don’t have a satisfying answer as to what happened to some five billion of our people!”
‘The bottom line,” Victor intercedes, “is that we - those of us in The Compound - have no say in what the world governments decide. With or without the aliens’ involvement, we can’t say what the future holds for The Compound.”
Daniel nods in agreement. “At any case, we have a new assignment. Snoop into the various government communications to find out where they’re at, what they plan to do. Concentrate on the larger governments; how they react will pretty much dictate how the smaller nations go. Sherry will make the assignments.”
Sherry nods and starts to speak, but remains silent.
“We now have another issue,” Daniel continues, looking at Victor as he speaks. “The demands by the Pentagon as condition of returning rule to Washington. Perhaps you would like to address this, Victor.”
Victor takes a deep breath and tries to smile, something he seldom does. “Well, I kind of look at their demands for change as a ‘wish list.’ Some of the things they are demanding are contrary to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It would require severe rewriting of those documents, only possible by the Federal government, specifically both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The military can’t make those changes. And neither can the Federal Government until it is back in power. Then it would be a monumental task to make the changes, many requiring a majority endorsement by the States. It would take time; possibly years. And the current government couldn’t even promise the Pentagon that they would make the changes.”
“Are you saying that Pentagon will never turn rule back to the civilians?” Charles demands.
“Not at all,” Victor patiently denies. “Historically, military coups are short in duration. They usually do so as a matter of necessity, usually when a government is so corrupt that the people are suffering. In our case, the new, relatively inexperienced, Washington lacks the leadership required to deal with the unique situation. As we - the military - were in the field and taking action, it was logical that our experienced command runs the show. I assure you, speaking on behalf of the Armed Forces, we are eager to get out from under this staggering burden. That list of conditions is more an ongoing plan. If the government takes action to meet those demands that they can, the Military will turn power back to them. They can then make additional changes over time.”
“No disrespect to you, Colonel,” Charles qualifies with unusual formality, “but I’m not sure I can trust the Military any more than the aliens.”
“No offense taken. But trust in history. No government take-over by their military has ever lasted for long. All have reverted to civilian rule. Trust me, we will turn over control - and gladly - as soon as we feel the new government is organized and capable.”
The discussion continues, with most present voicing their own concerns. Finally, with the hour getting late, Daniel intercedes, with a bottle in each hand. “We have scotch or vodka. What’s your preference?”
Sherry has glasses and mixers. The meeting is unofficially over, and after a few rounds, the conversation turns to the chances of ‘The Hackers,’ their softball team, in the upcoming finals. Many would like to continue partying, but Daniel knows they have a lot of work to do in the coming days. His people need to be rested - and without hangovers.
With a last toast to ‘Peace,’ they go their way.
While the world’s governments are concentrating on the aliens’ offer, what they don’t know is that a fleet of command ships are in stationary orbits, one over the capital city of each country. They are cloaked, invisible to both the eye and electronics. Their shields have also been modified to make earths intercepting rockets ineffective. Each ship contains the equipment which will regulate the smooth exchange of goods from nation to nation, then gradually implement a monetary exchange system for future trade, ready to be beamed down and made operational through a team of Peace Keepers. They hope Earth will accept the help, feeling compassion for the humans and some degree of responsibility for getting them into the present condition, but they will implement the program regardless.
The Peace Keepers beamed down have also been modified to be immune from the phasers Earth has developed.
Chapter Twenty-two
The aliens have established a network of satellites in synchronous orbits around earth, to serve as the ‘eyes’ of the distribution program in relation to food. They can see the cultivation on the surface of the earth, including what is growing and when it is ready for harvest. This data is fed to every processor the aliens have established around the world. It is this series of processors that provide Earthlings with instructions for the cultivation, harvesting, processing and distribution of food and food products.
The world accepted the aliens’ offer and the installation went smoothly. For the past two months, each processing station has been operated by a single Peace Keeper, who is also training a number of humans to eventually take over the operation and maintenance.
Local governments have been advised in some detail how the current system will be slowly converted to monetary trade. With both farmers, food processors, distributors and industry aware that change is in the works, all are satisfied to wait for those changes. Things are smoothing out; the needs of the people are being met worldwide - with a surplus. Gradually, a reserve of food goods is being established for emergencies.
With Peace Keeper 99 at the White House facilitating the change from military rule to civil rule, the Federal Government is once again at the helm. The military formally turned over control, with the agreement that there would be no retribution for those involved in the coup. At The Compound, Col. Victor Wells willingly turned over his command of law enforcement to the Village of Glen Haven, which by action of the government now includes the entire compound; the electric fence is now their ‘city limit.’
Sherry, as mayor, held a quick election, the single issue being the proposal for the incorporation of the property belonging to the federal government, which includes the acreage enclosed by the security fencing and almost twice as much land surrounding it, including Medina Lake. As the only residents on the land involved are those living within the compound, the result of the vote was unanimously in favor of the annexation. As a condition for the government to agree to the release of federal property, the City of New Haven leased to the government those facilities necessary for the continued operation of the research center. The income from that lease will be a substantial percentage of the city’s budget.
To facilitate the change in security, those soldiers who wished to remain with Glen Haven were given honorary discharges on the condition that they become members of the Glen Haven Police Department. Victor Wells, having resigned his commission, is the new Chief of Police. His wife, Tabitha (also released from the military), is the Assistant Chief.