by Geoff Wolak
Closing the portals, the USAF dialled again the future of that world, and found the Seether still there. Seemed that altering the time line was not so straight forwards. Both Clayton’s people and the Zim puzzled the failure of their agents, since the portal in Proxima had been tested by a craft going both ways.
Meanwhile, another world was dialled into at a similar date to Slumber’s mission start, and a world was found where no war had been fought with the Russians, and the chances of peace were reasonable, despite a nuclear–armed Russia. Clayton had in mind to interfere in their history. NASA dialled into that world a hundred years later, a micro-portal revealing advanced Seethans living there alongside humans – Seethans in positions of power and influence.
Clayton was beside himself, and a tad pissed off. NASA wound back the clock, and dialled in at a date ten years after Sandra had arrived, the TV news intercepted and observed for many days. The Zim accessed the internet on that world, and found the story of us assisting the development of the Seether, as well as the removal of any humans from the Seethan world. Clayton was, reportedly, aghast at what we were doing, and our interference in both worlds must have been known.
But the Zim must have also found stories about us and our linked worlds, The Resistance not mentioning them at this point in the story. Again, I considered what the Zim were up to, since they had been selective in their reporting; they had deliberately shown us in a bad light.
That story, of us developing Seether, made the rounds in the US military, but in isolation of our other activities. Some time later, The Resistance got hold of a copy of Jimmy’s life story, Dr Singh mentioned by name, Dr Singh suddenly realising why he had been sidelined, his security clearance downgraded.
Clayton then received a briefing on Jimmy, his travels, and his fondness for black Africans, Chinese and Russians. Here, The Resistance suggests that Zim members and the Joint Chiefs had altered the story before the briefing; in a time-honoured tradition they were being selective with the truth when briefing the President.
Clayton lost a little sleep over the briefing, since it suggested that Jimmy would probably arrive here at some point, and alter this world – infiltrating American agencies. Plans were made, traps set, some of them elaborate, lengthy – as well as expensive. They even found and killed the version of Jimmy on this world, in Britain, just in case.
The Zim were soon losing craft and puzzling that fact, as well as starting to be concerned about the losses. Clayton entered into a period of ship building, a great deal of resources thrown at the project. In order to placate the Zim, a great deal of refined metal and fissile material had been sent through the portals so that the Zim could repair ships and build colonies on the post-apocalyptic world.
In America, Zim scientists specified what they wanted and needed, and the Americans duly produced the parts at great cost, the parts all small enough to pass through the portals. A small army of US soldiers travelled across to the post-apocalyptic world, and assisted the Zim residing there to build happy homes and to raise barns. That version of Earth was preferable to Clayton’s version of Earth for a Zim homeland, since Clayton wanted to keep his human voters happy.
Clayton’s attacks on Sandra’s world failed, and Clayton was starting to lose faith in the space-time continuum, whilst becoming more of a dictator at home and abroad. He had persuaded the British to allow portals to be built north of London, cheap oil offered as a sweetener, and had then been handed a report to say that the plan had failed. Not only failed, but that several of the portals in Britain had been attacked and destroyed, dozens killed and hundreds wounded, something that the scientists – and the Zim – had said was impossible. Clayton now feared that we knew his frequency.
We didn’t know his frequency, but we had the data-stick from The Resistance, and that offered up their frequency - thanks to Dr Singh and his co-conspirators.
A side note listed all of the ships dispatched to Sandra’s world, and their purpose, and as I studied that list I realised that it made little sense from what I knew happened over there. There were no missions listed to attack any human populations, CAR, oil fields, and certainly no nukes sent. What were listed were missions and their aims, nearly all of which seemed to be slow and stealthy infiltration missions. The mission to create a solar flare was not listed, but the attack on Jimmy at the press conference was sanctioned – reluctantly – by Clayton, after pressure from the military.
At this point I stopped to puzzle what had gone on, and wondered if the US military had been working to their own agenda, or even if the Zim had been working to their own – and very separate - agenda. That portal on the asteroid struck me as being a bit extreme, but if the Zim had persuaded Clayton of the need for such steps, they also arranged it so that only their citizens could visit other worlds, since only they could survive the trip through space. It was certainly suspicious in its coincidence.
Something did not add up, and I re-read a few sections with a heavy frown. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something here was not right.
As I stood and stared out of my lounge window, I did so wondering if an elected US President had indeed created the solar flare with Zim help, and had tried to end all life of Sandra’s world, six billion lives – including Americans. After all, The Resistance only knew part of the story.
It would have been the act of a desperate man, but that desperation was unfounded. He had been briefed on Jimmy – by the military and the CIA, and seemed to fear that we would interfere on his world. Well, we would interfere, but we wouldn’t create a solar flare. Clayton seemed to have bought into the story, and sanctioned the various escalating attacks on Sandra’s world, attacks that would have killed a great many innocent people in a nuclear strike – something that seemed out of character.
President Clayton was a normal human being, I considered, a man with a wife and kids that he probably hugged. He ate like other people, sat on the toilet like other people, and laughed at bad jokes. But when he sat behind that desk at the White House he seemed to change, change from husband and father into something else; he played the role that the desk suggest he play.
He believed his own staff, and acted as he thought he should in the circumstances – he played the role of President as if stood on a stage in front of an audience, reality suspended, his skin just an outer shell as if a mask worn on stage. He cited the words in a manner that he figured the role demanded, his gut instinct overridden. He was playing the part, and consumed in the part, unable to get off the stage.
As I read on, I could see where it was going, this tale of power and manipulation. But Clayton had the oil, he had defeated the Russians, and that world was starting to advance well enough. It may have even ended up peaceful, and part of our group.
Using the knowledge of the advanced Seether, and the missile blasts in Britain, Clayton made a speech – and scared the crap out of not just the US voters, but the peoples of the world. There were, apparently, other aliens, and they were bad aliens, and a threat to the future of the planet. Images of the Seether appeared in newspapers and on TV screens, and paranoia was spread far and wide. Clayton increased defence spending, but on the kind of technologies that might be effective against the Seether – who he saw as a direct threat.
At this point, NATO countries and others accused America of eavesdropping on them with advanced technology, and the British Prime Minister outwardly accused the CIA of intercepting secure British messages. Clayton denied the charges, but was always one step ahead of the other nations – somehow.
The Resistance’s side note here described the disquiet amongst the Zim, and that several Zim seem to have been killed. A new Zim leader came around, and he would cooperate with Clayton; they would sink or swim together. The Zim received everything they wanted, but had lost fifty citizens out of a reputed hundred thousand, and more than thirty craft. The loss of the citizens was not an issue, and new craft were being built.
Then one day, footage was released of alien ships
attacking US enlisted men over on the other world – the one being populated by the Zim, men killed and wounded. Bodies were brought back draped in the American flag, much ceremony. Tales were told of brave soldiers fighting back, and of brave Zim pilots going head to head with the aliens. The attacks continued, and Clayton suggested a world-wide defence strategy, just in case.
A month later an alien craft attacked an American airliner – this time on Clayton’s world, shooting down three jets sent to intercept it. That sealed it: the aliens were here, and mankind was under threat.
A side note here from The Resistance suggested that they had evidence that the attack was definitely a Zim ploy, and that Clayton knew about it.
I wondered about his state of mind, and why he desired the state of emergency. Could he have believed that such a state would assist him if we turned up? Could he have hoped to peg us as dangerous aliens, or friends of those dangerous aliens, if we showed our faces on that world? We were known to be assisting the Seether, and now the Seether were being pegged as the bad guys, so it made sense. But he detailed the Seether as a threat, no mention of us obviously – or of advanced parallel worlds.
Clayton then did an odd thing, but a clever thing. He appointed three senior Democrats to the cabinet and formed a unity government, suggesting that a coalition government was needed in this time of crisis, and that elections may be delayed. There was even talk of martial law for the United States. Clayton had whipped the people into a frenzy, and had scared the populations of most countries. And there the data-stick story ended, a portal having been adjusted so that a missile – a faulty one – would land at a later date to the attack on Jimmy. The Resistance were controlling the portals, thus having the access and the opportunity to send us the data stick.
I went again to the window in the lounge, and stared out, wondering how the human race produced men like President Clayton. Susan came and joined me.
‘Still at it?’ she asked.
‘No, I just this minute finished the story.’
‘Story?’ she puzzled. ‘You’ve been ignoring me to read a book?’
‘I wish it had been a book. No, it was the story of another world, the one launching the alien attacks.’
‘How do we know about that world?’
‘There’s a resistance movement over there, opposed to those launching the attacks, and they smuggled out the story.’ I turned back to the view.
‘So … we know where they are?’
‘Yes,’ I sighed. ‘But it won’t be an easy situation to unwind, not without creating a paradox – or ten. So, we have to go at them at a certain date.’
‘What’s the problem? Just attack at that date.’
‘They … are human.’
‘Human?’
I half turned my head and nodded. ‘And they are … Americans with a Cold War mentality, sat in 1990-something.’
‘My God. And the aliens?’
‘Lost and friendly, by all accounts, till they were recruited by a US President – who himself has become lost.’
‘What’ll Jimmy do?’ Susan asked.
‘Not a clue.’
The boys ran in, chasing each other, and I lifted one up, Klok, the lad struggling to get free as I tickled him. I put him down and he ran off. Staring after the boys, I said, ‘What is it about us humans that makes us form groups, tribes, nations and peoples? What makes us hate those from over the line, even when they’re just like us?’
Susan folded her arms. ‘Humans originally survived by operating in tight family groups, and being wary of strangers was a good survival instinct that we developed and honed,’ she said as we sat. ‘In nature, males kill the offspring of other males, so keeping close to mum - and to the pack - helps.’
I nodded absently. ‘Unfortunately, some still see strangers as enemies.’
Battle plans
Jimmy dropped in with his wife a few days later. When we were alone, Helen Silo playing with the boys, I asked Jimmy what the plan was – regarding President Clayton.
Jimmy took a moment, peering into his beer. ‘Don’t repeat this, but I gave Sandra a super-computer with a copy of Mobius on it, and … Dark Star has instructions to copy his software to other ships, ships that Sandra may make – against the wishes of the various consortiums.’
‘Why risk leaving Mobius over there – it has a vast amount of data in it?’ I puzzled.
‘So that they can make a few advances; the software will co-ordinate all of the planet’s defences. That way they should advance quickly. You see … when I read about The Resistance, and Dr Singh on that world, I remembered what the original Dr Singh had tried to do; he had hoped to find a more advanced version of Earth that could help us. As it turned out, I had to advance that Earth, but it was the same principal. So, Sandra has been given a secret task.’
‘Ah. And the attacks on that world?’
‘Would be fought to a standstill, and if we lost we’d wind back. I think the Zim realise that now, and how futile it is to fight time travellers.’
‘Clayton won’t just give up,’ I said. ‘That story ends with him about to declare martial law.’ Jimmy nodded, appearing a little saddened. I continued, ‘And just how the hell do we explain what he’s done to the press here?’
‘That … won’t be easy. If we could rewind that world it would be a different matter, but we can’t – we’re linked. So, we’re going to have to be clever. Not quite sure yet how clever, but we’ll need to thread the eye of the needle, and a small needle at that.’
‘If Sandra develops that world, she might just take matters into her own hands,’ I cautioned. ‘Does she have that story?’
‘She had it before me,’ Jimmy revealed.
‘Christ. And the public over there?’
‘I would guess that the various world leaders know about it,’ Jimmy admitted.
‘It’ll be a difficult adjustment for the Americans there.’
‘But it may also help, since Sandra has always come in for criticism by being based in Britain, and by sharing technology with the Russians and the Chinese. The story of Clayton strengthens her hand.’
‘When we contact her next, the people here will get that story,’ I pointed out.
Jimmy nodded, and made a face. ‘I guess the people here would want a show trial, some of them at least. But most would just see it as primitive Cold War mentality, and part of history. But, step by step, Clayton did what many people would have done, and what I would have done.
‘He used the Zim to disarm the Russians – nothing wrong with that if it prevents a war, he moved into the Middle East to keep the oil flowing – nothing wrong with that, and he tried to stop the development of an alien race that may have been hostile to mankind.
‘But when he knew about me, and our linked worlds, he made a fatal mistake, and he knows it. Once started, he knew there was no way out, and that we’d be coming for him. He also figures us to be pacifists – to a point, at least he probably figures I am.’
‘A man who figures you to be a pacifist … is already in the grave,’ I firmly pointed out.
Hail to the chief
Across time and space, Republican Senator Hal Becker of Arizona, and Republican Senator Jim “Hacker” LeBante of Massachusetts, organised a press conference on the hill in Washington.
‘My fellow Americans,’ Hal began, Hacker at his side, aides stood nearby. ‘Like many of you, I have been very concerned about these aliens in our midst, and about this new threat. So I broke a few laws, stretched a few laws, and I used up a few favours – I even paid a few bribes. What I can reveal … is that the alien attacks are phoney, and that they were orchestrated by President Clayton – who wishes to become a dictator, the first American dictator.
‘There are no dangerous aliens attacking us, it’s simply being orchestrated by the friendly aliens working with the CIA to create panic. But what I can also reveal today ... is that twenty six mother ships - stuffed full of millions of these same aliens - are abou
t to enter our solar system. Those aliens, millions of them, are heading to Earth, where they expect to find a place to live – a light left on in the window, and President Clayton has provisionally offered them a home here, in America.
‘My fellow Americans, we’re being sold down the river, and we’re being sold out by President Clayton, who has betrayed the people of America, and who has betrayed the people of this world. To all of the peoples of Earth I say this: prepare to be invaded, and to be enslaved.’
Hal and Hacker stepped away from the bank of cameras, the press stunned. The news went right around the world quickly, panic spreading – not least in the White House. Clayton tried to call Hal and Hacker – his previously staunch allies, calls not answered.
On many a hilltop across the United States, and in many a rural backwater, gun nuts and militia members took the speech as gospel, and they did not need to be nudged twice. War had been declared, a war against the federal government, against what was seen as wasted tax dollars, against liberals and big business, and against anything else on a long list of gripes. Pro-life Christian gun nuts went out and shot dead abortion performing doctors, not considering it a sin, or anti-life!
Farmers and ranchers armed themselves, which meant that they now carried two weapons instead of just the one, and assault rifles were handed to thirteen year old boys by ‘pa’. In the south, a few calls of ‘The South will rise again’ could be heard in bars, and not just displayed on bumpers.
America’s vast sub-population of disaffected citizens, who all thought that ‘they could do a better job of it than Washington’, were a factor that Jimmy had woven into his plan, a plan discussed with Hal and Hacker before they had left our world. All that was needed to tip America over the edge, and into anarchy and chaos, was a genuine reason and rallying call for the gun nuts and the disaffected.