The setup for this isn’t easy. The governor and Sean have to call in some odd favors to arrange for our transport—odd because they aren’t asked of people these two usually ask favors of. In normal times that would have caused delay. This project should have been months in the making. But this is a post-world-invasion time, a time of first interstellar contact for these people, a once-in-a-lifetime time, and these people know it. Support is arranged in four days.
Al, Chin, and I are each put in our suits and crated up. These crates and many decoys are sent on diplomatic courier planes to embassies near our targets. The first day after we arrive we discreetly scout out our targets. We look at viewpoints of the sights, we look at ways in, and we look at ways out. We also look at security—how long will it take the locals to mount a significant response? Chin’s Gardens looks the easiest. It’s old, designed for mass public access, and no one seems to have thought of threatening it for hundreds of years.
Al’s target is going to be a challenge. It’s a large rock surrounded by a religious office complex. As we learn the details of the complex, we think about changing to a different target because there is so much semi-secure infrastructure, but Al assures us he can handle it.
My own target is a large marble building with a large marble statue inside, surrounded by grass and trees with no other meaningful buildings within 500 meters. It should be a cakewalk, but Concordia is a prosperous nation feeling civil stress and this monument is near a popular demonstrating area. The security response will begin within two minutes and it will be massive. This won’t threaten me so much as it will my disappearing act.
The final and trickiest thing we do is patch into local PA systems. Both the Gardens and the Gontal site have permanent speaker systems that let thousands hear periodic announcements. In Concordia I’ll have to do without that luxury and rely on the suit speakers.
We each know our areas as well as we can. Sean has rounded up maps of roads and utilities and we study those. We each have primary and alternate entry and disappearing routes. We are primed, we are pumped, and Chin gets to be first.
“Me first?” she says at our radio conference before the event.
“You get to do your thing at sunrise. It will be quite beautiful and, if you’re lucky, no one will see you.
“Remember you get to be visible for five minutes at most. Three would be best. You get to give the best part of the speech, too, because you’ll have the most time.”
“OK.”
“When you finish, Al gets to put on his show at roughly noon, local time.”
“Good. I’ve always seen myself as a lunch hour kind of politician. Who can think seriously about politics before lunch, anyway?” says Al.
“Just keep in mind that lunch hour is busy hour. You should be able to talk for about a minute to ninety seconds then skedaddle.”
“And finally I’ll be making my appearance in Concordia near sunset. I conclude in about thirty seconds and then make myself scarce in a hostile nation with half an army of security people on my tail.”
“Piece o’ cake,” says Al.
“I hope so. Are we all set? Make it happen!”
Chin bounces into the Gardens just before sunrise in camo mode and bounces to the top of a dome. As the sun hits her she pops out of camo mode to become a bright white star on top of a rose-pink dome and start the speech playing.
“People of this planet. I am Kull the Conqueror.
“Your leaders may have told you of the great battle they just fought. Your leaders may have told you they have chased all the aliens from your world. Your leaders are liars. I am here.
“Your leaders may have told you that I am evil. They may have told you I will bring death and destruction to your world. Your leaders are liars and if you let them act on their lies they will bring about what they prophesy.
“I have not come to bring death and destruction, I have come to this world to bring you into the Interstellar Age—an age of Golden Prosperity.”
“Good girl!” I say. “You got it all out. Now skedaddle.”
Chin pops a flash-smoke grenade, turns camo back on, and bounces away.
“Clear,” she announces after she hits the ground behind some nearby shrubbery, bounces over the outer wall, and slips into a nearby wooded grove.
Al is right on cue. He’s been in position on one of the nearby rooftops. As Chin gives her speech he moves to the edge of the roof. On her “clear”, he pops his grenade, drops camo, then bounces down to stand on the Rock itself.
“People of this planet. I, Kull the Conqueror, say you have a golden future in store for you. A future that will take you to the stars.” He points up in a wonderful gesture, even hovers a bit as he does so; what a ham. “But you must embrace that future. If you turn your back on it the stars will turn their back on you. You will become a lost and forgotten people. Your god will abandon you for you will have proved yourselves worthless and weak.”
He bounces back up to the roof top. “Embrace the stars. Embrace them now!” and pops his grenade.
My turn, but I must wait for his clear. I wait … I wait … Ten seconds … thirty seconds.…
“Clear” I finally hear forty-five seconds later.
My spot to talk from is the statue’s head. I’ve been hiding in a maintenance room in the building and as Al started his talk I moved to hide behind the statue. The Concordia security is impressive—these folks are reasonably alert—so I won’t have an extra minute to spare.
I flash my grenade on the statue head, turn off camo, and look down upon my audience. There are about fifty people in the building and an equal number that I can see outside.
“People of this planet. Fear Kull the Conqueror! I have technologies you haven’t dreamed of.
“Love Kull the Conqueror. I want you to have these technologies to make your lives better. But for me to give you these technologies you must embrace the stars.”
I copy Al’s point-and-hover maneuver, and flash my own grenade. I camo and I’m out!
And not a moment too soon, either. Security forces with their projectile weapons are sprinting on to the monument grounds as I exit. Had I delayed another moment—and if they were trigger happy—there would have been a lot of marble chips on the floor that night.
Now comes the really hard part. Kull has been around this world in not much more than 80 seconds; now we all have to stay out of sight and get back Verdant. I bounce out of the monument park and into a nearby large river. It is a delicate bounce because I don’t want to stir up huge chunks of turf as I move.
Once I’m on the river bottom, things get easier. I fast-walk to the far side, then two kilometers upriver, and come to an abandoned sewer line. This I follow into a suburb. In a warehouse is a crate into which I seal myself. Then I wait. The crate is to be express shipped back to the province.