The first inkling on Earth that this much anticipated event had really begun was a request from Titan for a new communications channel and a new encryption code. The request was routine in these tense times between The Belt and the Inner System, it was a way of insuring that a communication was extra secure simply because no one had had time to hack it. But the information carried over this new channel was far from routine, it was blockbuster! I got the information six hours after it arrived on Earth.
The news was a report from a Belter space ship exploring the newest HX discovery -- the one halfway to Altair. The report was a talking head mixed in with some projection charts -- it was really primitive and anachronistic by today's reporting standards, and my thought as I watched the opening was, "I'd be assigned to Moscow for sending something this hastily-prepared." I had more than half a mind to simply move on to the next report and leave this one for one of my people to review -- I'm a busy man, and it's not my job to digest raw infofeed.
In this case I was glad I didn't. The head said, "We were watching the action. From what we can tell. Ship A was chasing Ship B. Ship B was engaging in evasive maneuvers, but its future did not look bright. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, something big hit Ship A and it started tumbling lifelessly. After Ship A had drifted for six hours, Ship B came back to Ship A and, as best we can tell, started looting it. Our best guess on what happened is that Ship B deliberately led Ship A into some kind of a space mine.
"We thought that was the end of the matter. As best we can tell, this kind stuff happens fairly regularly out here, and in fact, when Ship B left, we came in for our turn at looting Ship A. We sent in an exploring party. They were supposed to come out in 24 hours or less. But twelve hours after they went in, Ship D was spotted heading our way. We backed off. Ship D did not make contact and proceeded out of the area. Twelve hours after we moved away, we were heading back for the ship.
"So far, all this was standard operating procedure for the near-HX environment. Then, the unusual happened: Ship A restored power, at least partially, so we backed off again. The situation didn't look good, and we had heard nothing from the exploring party. Twenty hours later Ship A got back to it's interstellar drive unit -- most ships out here have a separate unit for interstellar travel -- fired up its main drive, and started heading for the Solar System. We have had no contact with the exploring party.
"Ship A is not in good shape, but that does not, I repeat, that does not automatically mean it is vulnerable to Earth-technology weaponry. That is why we moved away when it powered up. We are currently shadowing the ship and we will keep you informed of any changes in it's status. It's current ETA at the Solar System is roughly six months, planetary time, from the time you receive this message."
Yes, the presentation standard was totally unacceptable, but the news was blockbuster! And now I had a lot of preparing to do....
Oh! I'm Jack Purdu, head of DISASTREX, Earth, and if there was anything that everyone on Earth agreed spelled disaster, it was the coming of an alien ship packing HX technology. This was a worst case scenario, and one that all of mankind had worried about since Burnmeshorts first came back from the Honeycomb Comet.
Coincident with the arrival of the secret message was a public message that both The Belt's president and Titan's CEO would be headed to the Inner System for a flyby real-time conference with an Earth-Mars delegation. Most of the public would assume this was yet another conference about Inner/Outer System tensions, but I now knew it would have a very different agenda.
I had a lot of homework to do before that flyby conference convened. The purpose of the real-time flyby conference would be to gain a final "measure of men." The meeting would not be started with anything like, "OK, what do we do now?" That question would be answered in the months leading up to the flyby by preparing and reporting what alternatives were available over the normal communications links with their hours-long turnarounds, and winnowing that list down to what was really practical. At worst, the final flyby conference would decide between a Plan A and Plan B, but ninety percent of the time a choice was made long before the conference convened. No matter what was decided, much of the conference would be devoted to affirming the choice, and transmitting that affirmation to the media -- media impact was the reason for a real-time, fly-by conference.
My homework for this flyby was a big assignment -- disaster is at the heart of every contemporary alien-comes-to-Earth scenario, and the Disaster Business is My Business.
<<<<*>>>>
The day of the flyby conference has finally come, but I'm not a happy puppy. Preparing for this conference has been profoundly frustrating. As I said earlier, the disaster business is my business, but my government associates in other departments are in denial! While they give lip service to disaster planning, in their hearts they are planning on fighting this thing, and winning!
As a result, Nash Mostromo, Earth's President, won't declare a civil emergency. And because he won't declare a civil emergency, I can't kick any of my machinery into action. What he has done instead is declare a military alert, and the planning has been strictly about a military response.
God it's been hell! Not a week has gone by over the last four months that I haven't planned to give my letter of resignation to the president. I should... but this is my moment! I'm head of DISASTREX, and whoever is head of DISASTREX over the next three months will be memorialized for the next century.
Likewise I hear dark rumors each week that the president is very unhappy with me and wants my head. He complains behind closed doors that I'm rocking the boat, but he won't act publicly because shaking up DISASTREX would be a prima fascia admission that this is a civil problem -- something he steadfastly denies. He denies it because he hints that this whole alien invasion thing is some kind of Titan-inspired hoax designed to get them leverage at the negotiating table. In fact, he's painted himself into a sweet, sweet corner because he is using the news to leverage himself in these negotiations. It's sweet... as long as the aliens are a hoax.
Sadly, there is every indication this a real alien ship coming to the Solar System, and so every day the Earth President plays his games is a day the Earth is less prepared. And it's a real shame because with this much notice that a specific disaster is on the way, there's so much we could be doing!
Instead we have this odd situation where Titaners are already battening down the hatches and the Earth government is saying, "Impending doom? What impending doom are you talking about?" and my agency is stuck in the middle. Christ!
I can tell you what we should have been doing. My people started working on this problem long ago, and over the last four months we've been burnishing the plan as much as we can with our short staff.
You may not be familiar with DISASTREX's alien invasion scenario, so let me give you a quick overview.
The HX Alien Invasion Scenario (HXAI, pronounced hack-si) is a variant on the Asteroid Impact Scenario (AIS, pronounced a-i-s). The main difference being: in the HXAI scenario, the asteroid, or asteroids, are striking intelligently. Instead of the Pacific Ocean being the most likely impact point, Mexico City, the largest collection of buildings and machines on the planet, becomes the most likely impact point, followed by other cities in order of the value of their total infrastructure.
That being the case, DISASTREX recommends evacuation of the major cities, starting with the largest, and that the populations of these large cities be relocated to Earth's most remote locations: central Australia and Antarctica being the most desirable. The goal is to spread out Earth's wealth and people as evenly and as rapidly as possible.
We can do this fairly quickly, but not cheaply. This is going to cause large economic dislocations, caused by the massive movement of both people and wealth."
That's what I have been recommending to my associates as we prepare for this conference. But I've been running into a brick wall when it comes to getting cooperation to implement this. Not just a brick wall, but a gag wall, too. Even if the government can't find funds, I could be promoting this publicly and getting the private sector involved, but the President himself has vetoed even any spending on PSA's.
We had a meeting on this early in Month Two. As I was opening with a summary of my recommendations, he interrupted with, "Whoa! Are you saying we just give up Earth's cities without a fight?"
I replied, "You would rather give them up with a fight? Please remember, that, even given as little as we know about it, it's not even probable that we can defeat this ship. This ship routinely deals with full HX technology ships and weapons. In 21st century Earth terms, this is a Zodiac carrying a DELTA Force team and we are trying to defend our island with war canoes and clubs. Sure, the alien ship is heavily damaged. That means there's not a Black Hawk helicopter flying right behind the Zodiac. What I'm saying is: we should not be acting as if we can drive this ship away from our Solar System. We should be acting as if this is the 500 pound alien we have all feared would come one day. We should be preparing to run and hide until it goes away."
Mostromo wouldn't hear of it. He was waving his arms, "No. No. No! We must present a strong front. Not just to these aliens, but to the electorate as well. If you tell the public what you are telling me, there will be panic in the streets. I won't have that."
"Panic? You get a panic when something unexpected happens. You're telling me that people all over the world for hundreds of years haven't been thinking about aliens coming? And expecting we would get our butts kicked when they did?"
"Not in this real world, they haven't. Sorry, you'll have to keep your planning low-key for now. I mean just that: low-key.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for my next meeting."
That was a lie. This conversation had taken five minutes and I'd checked before I'd gone in. I'd been given a full half hour. But there wasn't any more to say. I walked out, and I've kept my mouth shut... but it's insane! And every day, I've felt it was more insane!
I tried to backchannel around him, but as I went from associate to associate in the government, I found Mostromo was being a moderate. Basically, I got two kinds of answers: a few said, "Yes, I agree, but look around you. In times like these what can I do?" and many said, "You're a goddamn defeatist! Get out of my office!" And as I watched the newsfeeds, I realized my sympathizers where right: as scared as we all were, War Fever was gripping Earth.
And now it is conference day....
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem." said Harris "Bull" Kogi as the opening statement over the video conference link.
"What do you mean 'we', Spaceman." said Marty Ranson over a private channel to me. Marty is my counterpart on Titan. We've met at some conferences, and done some drinking together, so we're on familiar terms. The "What do you mean we" - line comes from an old, corny joke that was spawned by that old adventure series that was supposed to have taken place in Titan's Pioneering Days: The Lone Lawman. It's about a renegade lawman and his faithful creation companion. You've probably heard of it. The line is nothing you could say out loud in a quickly arranged, serious meeting such as this one, but it sure needed to be said. Even with this crisis, relations between Earth, the Belt and Titan were at one of those seriously bogged-down stages, when there is a lot of carping going on over molehill issues.
Bull Kogi played the initial report from the scout ship to set the stage. When it finished Nathan Orlando, CEO of Titan, asked, "Do we have any idea what its capabilities are, or intentions?"
Bull Kogi answered, "One intention is likely to be repair. What it will take to do that, we have no idea. It could have other intentions as well. Is it coming to rape women and kill cows?... not likely, but we know so little about HX inhabitants that beyond that it's hard to tell.
"Let us first hear where the military stands on this issue. Admiral Kojaz, if you please."
The Admiral began his presentation. "The Inner System Defense Group still has some issues it has not resolved with the Outer System Defense Group.
"First, the Inner System Group would like to face this invader in the Gas Giant Belt. However, we recognize that is the home of most of the Belter population, so we are willing to compromise and face it in the Kuiper Belt, roughly Pluto's orbit. Second, we still have to decide how to share the technology we may find on it." The discussion which followed took us to lunch time.
When lunch break came Marty snagged me on our private line, "What have these people been smoking? I haven't seen so much sunshine being spread around since Custer had a press conference promising to have his troops home by Christmas! Your Earth people are seriously talking about beating off, even capturing the alien?"
"Amazing, isn't it... Just like I was talking about with you earlier."
"This isn't political suicide. It's outright suicide! I hope you personally have been taking precautions."
"I have. I've moved the wife and family to a model relocation community in Australia."
"And you?"
"Damnit. I'm head of DISASTREX! The best I can justify is being miles away from Ground Zero, but I can't be halfway around the globe!"
I presented immediately after lunch break.
I opened with, "I hate to be Mr. Doom and Gloom, but that's my job isn't it?" I was hoping for a mild chuckle, or two, but I got dead silence. Uh oh...
I basically told people what I had tried to tell Nostromo at that first meeting. I said my piece and then Bull Kogi took the video again.
"Thank you, Director Purdu, for those sage words. I urge all you participants not to forget them." Then with a change of voice indicating he was done saying the boilerplate platitudes he had to say, he continued, "Now, Admiral Kojax, how soon can you have your Earth fleet at Titan for armaments upgrading?"
Well, I had my moment in the sun. When the feed for that session ended, I had expected Nostromo to personally hand me my head, but instead I heard nothing but platitudes from him. I guess they took my joke at the beginning seriously: someone had to say it. But it was clear that War Fever was raging so strongly that Nostromo's ratings were not even slightly phased by what I said, so I was reprieved again.
<<<<*>>>>
The faint "star" that was the alien ship's retrofiring drive unit became visible to Earth's telescopes about four months before arrival. At first it was a star that combined the light of the alien ship and it's Belter "shadow", but just about the time Earth could barely distinguish anything, the shadow stopped transmitting, and it's jet signature disappeared from the star's light. As best we knew on Earth, it was now dead -- for some reason, after months of letting the shadow ship follow, the alien had taken time and effort to turn on it.
The news of the star becoming visible and the probable death of the shadow was paraded all over Earth, but not with Nostromo's blessing. He wanted to keep the alien event low-key, but the Belter's and Titaners forced his hand: they had taken this threat seriously and had been battening down hatches for months. This news didn't threaten their preparation efforts in the slightest.
The Earth fleet, replete with new HX tech upgrades provided by the Titaners, headed out for a Pluto orbit rendezvous. The Belter fleet waved them good-bye, and then dispersed. It was not going to take part in this "war canoes face Delta Force" fiasco. Their statement about why they weren't joining the effort was, "If the Inner System's twenty mainline ships can't deal with this situation, our ten ships won't change the result. We are happy to play the part of reserve." Nostromo's off-the-record retort was, "Yeah, and lets see how much technology they get from this, too."
<<<<*>>>>
The moment of encounter in a space battle is never in doubt -- the ships see each other for years before they close -- but that doesn't mean there aren't surprises.
The first surprise was to have the wreckage and debris of the shadow ship come blazing into the solar system a month ahead of the alien ship... but it shouldn't have been. The alien ship had been decelerating steadily, but the shadow ship had stopped decelerating when it was destroyed. The debris was no surprise to the space travel experts, but to the average man-in-the-street, it was like the truce messenger coming back to the battle line on his horse -- with his head cut off. Identifying the debris was taken as strong justification for a shoot-first, ask-later rule of engagement for the upcoming battle.
The battle itself was quick. Shots were fired essentially simultaneously from both sides, and the final damage tally was two Earth vessels and one alien vessel destroyed. In less than thirty minutes, the war was over!
<<<<*>>>>
The cheering and celebrating went on for a month. When the battle finished, the Earth fleet reversed its thrusting and started it's homeward journey -- something expected to take eighteen months -- and three of the fastest scouts burned up gobs of fuel to match speed with, and rendezvous with, the defeated alien ship -- something expected to take six months to do. Those scouts would send the first reports on spoils of war.
On Earth and Mars the celebrations began immediately. In the Belt people were a little more cautious -- the battle looked over, it smelled over... but how many times had the Solar System been invaded by aliens? What was the SOP -- Standard Operating Procedure -- on alien invasions?
The people of Earth were in that warm, fuzzy, "morning after the big win" stage when the bad news came from Mercury: the aliens were there!!
At first everyone... everyone called bullshit on this announcement. The first word of trouble was Mercury South Pole Base reporting that Mercury North Pole Base had stopped transmitting any communications. When the South Pole people sent investigators, they didn't talk, either. It was only when a satellite got a long range photo back to South Pole Base, and it showed an extra hole in the ground near the base, that anyone had a clue as to the cause of the problem. The problem was confirmed, in the Mercurian's eyes, when an unmanned drone tried to fly over North Pole Base while the satellite watched, and it was "rendered inert by unknown means."
It was two days after this incident was all over the news before Kogi, the Belt President, acknowledged the reports, and a week before Nostromo would. In retrospect it was obvious: the aliens had powerful enough ECM that we had missed them on the way in, and what we had destroyed was some kind of decoy.
Now the aliens were established on the North Pole of Mercury -- they had landed undetected, moved in and wiped out all the humans at North Pole Base. Those humans on Mercury who were not wiped out were fleeing to the South Pole Base. They would be evacuated from there, if they could. About five hundred people were presumed dead.
And what did Earth have to send against them? The main Inner System battle fleet was still outside Pluto's orbit. At top speed -- which they now switched to -- it would be nine months before they could get into Mercury's area at flyby speeds, and twelve months for them to arrive at a speed which would let them orbit. The Belter fleet could get into Mercury orbit in six months, "But what would we do once we got there? Die, like North Pole Base did? No thank you! We don't want to say, 'We told you so.' but, 'We told you so.'" was Nathan Orlando, Titan's CEO's, first reply to the request. A week later the fleet was ordered to reassemble -- half would screen Mars and half would screen Earth. What combination of Belter War Fever and pork barrel politicking brought about that change of heart, I don't know.
For two months the "siege" of North Pole Base was conducted with little change. The aliens were busy at something, probably repairs, but nothing that could monitor them could get close enough to discover much. The aliens had some kind of ECM up, so radar was useless, only visible light seemed to show anything at all, and it was fuzzy. All that could be deduced was there were more excavations.
For the first week of the siege I screamed! I yelled! I chewed the carpet! But I could not get Nostromo to face reality and start evacuating the big cities. I worked the back channels again feverishly, and I got a lot more sympathy. There were a lot more "cool heads" this time, and everyone was very uncomfortable with the fact that Earth had no military option until some kind of fleet orbited the planet, and that would be six months to a year from now.
Finally, when the editorial cartoons started showing Nostromo facing outward (where the Earth fleet was) and the aliens buzzing around his "soft underbelly" (as Churchill delicately put it during WWII), he began to relent. In Week Two we had a meeting and he authorized the laying of infrastructure for Alternate Human Habitation facilities (Alt Habs) in Australia and Antarctica. This brought a storm of protests and lawsuits from the environmentalists, so in Week Three he called a session of Parliament to authorize a state of civil emergency. It passed in just three hours.
Finally, finally IT WAS MY TIME!!