by Andy Ritchie
Another long period of silence.
JP - 'How long do we have?'
Tukaal - 'Now that I’ve made my initial verbal report, I’m required by the Protocol to submit the evidence within 22 brown, that’s about twenty hours...'
JP - 'And if you don’t?'
Tukaal - 'As part of my initial verbal report, I told them what I saw at the complex. If I don’t submit the evidence, the Secretariat will send its own team in to do a full appraisal...they are likely to reach the same conclusion as I did.'
JP - 'So you have to submit the evidence by mid afternoon tomorrow. What then?'
Tukaal - 'The Secretariat starts to make the arrangements for the Discontinuation Order to be carried out...they have to convene an emergency meeting of the Executive...the Executive reviews the evidence and reaches a final decision...'
JP - 'And can that process be influenced or stopped?'
Tukaal - 'Yes, but only by me, and only if I am able to provide the meeting of the Executive with evidence that demonstrates that effective and permanent action has been taken to eliminate the threat. But there is a time limit. The Discontinuation Order has to be rescinded within 21 purple, which gives us until...Friday 24th.'
JP takes a long, heavy breath.
JP - 'Then that’s what we are going to have to do, find a way to convince your Executive lot that the threat has been taken care of...'
Tukaal - 'I won’t lie to them, Jeth, I simply won’t do it. However much I want to save your planet and your people, I will not be complicit in a lie that results in these W.I.M.D.s remaining viable. '
JP - 'So what are we going to do instead? Sit around a camp-fire singing Kumbaya until your Confederation friends reach a decision and the human race is exterminated? We need to find an alternative...something...anything!'
No response from Tukaal.
Another long, sullen silence.
JP - 'You told them that the solution to the issue with these W.I.M.D.s was to remove the source of the emotional energy that forms the basis of them, correct?'
[Collator’s Note: I think Tukaal nods at this point.]
JP - 'So why didn’t you suggest that they simply destroy the facility for creating the actual weapon...use a ray-gun or something to take out the complex?'
Tukaal - 'I...I...did wonder about that...maybe I should have suggested it...but how do we know that there aren’t other similar facilities elsewhere...'
JP - 'Do you really think there are? That Gao’An you killed...didn’t he say that all the emotional energy was channelled to the complex?'
Tukaal - 'He did, but I’m not willing to take that chance, Jeth. I told you that I won’t compromise...'
JP - 'Would Mendelssohn know?'
Tukaal - 'Possibly...but The One will certainly know...'
JP - 'And if we could find out for sure that Peterhead was the only place they were developing these W.I.M.D.s, we could get your people to destroy it...shit, we could even break back into the complex with some explosives and simply blow the whole thing up ourselves...'
Tukaal - 'And what about the emotional energy crystals that are in the complex, not to mention the pellets. If they got caught up in an explosion, it could destroy most of north-east Scotland, maybe even more.'
JP - 'But at least we’d be able to prove that the Bad Guys’ ability to make the W.I.M.D.s has gone. That should be sufficient evidence to convince your Executive to call off this Discontinuation Order.'
Tukaal - 'And what about the hundreds of thousands of people who would perish in the explosion. Are you saying that they are expendable? A sacrifice worth making?'
JP - '[ironically] Touché. But if it meant saving the rest of humanity...'
Tukaal - 'The key is proving that Peterhead is the only place where W.I.M.D. development is happening...if we could do that, then maybe, just maybe...'
JP - 'What?'
Tukaal - '...we could destroy the complex without risking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.'
JP - 'How?'
Tukaal - 'I’ll explain it over a nice cup of tea.'
JP - 'Shit...left it recoding...'
[Collator’s Note: Rather annoyingly, the audio file stops at this point.]
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Post-It Note 8
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[Collator's Note: Jethro's efforts to save mankind from destruction, including his meeting with 'The One', are chronicled in Part 3 of 'The Book That THEY Do Not Want You To Read'.]