“I hope these examples have given you some idea as to the size of our challenge, ladies and gentlemen. Speaking of going to war against the Broa is like declaring war on an earthquake. It is as though the people of Pompeii assembled their legions to march on Vesuvius.
“In our arrogance, we human beings do not like to admit there are forces in this universe against which we are powerless. Unfortunately, such forces do exist. Sometimes the only defense is to get out of the way. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of those times!”
Director Landrieu paused for dramatic effect and to sip from a glass of water. He put the water down and looked out over the audience, judging the effect his words were having, before he continued:
“We cannot hope to defeat the Broa. Our only hope of survival is to get out of their way. It is the mission of the Paris Institute to figure out how to do that.
“I am here today to tell you that we have succeeded in our mission!”
#
A low murmur flowed across the audience like a wave hitting a beach. Landrieu pressed a control on the lectern and a three dimensional flowchart appeared in the cube.
“This, ladies and gentlemen, is our plan. To avoid the attention of the Broa, we must lower our profile in the universe. To do that, we will have to abandon our interstellar colonies and substantially reduce the electromagnetic noise we broadcast into space.”
Fernandez went on to explain that each time humanity planted a colony in another star system, the probability that they would be discovered by the pseudo-simians doubled. Not only did multiple human occupied star systems increase the likelihood of a Broan ship or probe stumbling across them, but the colonies broadcast electronic noise to the heavens. He asked the audience to visualize human space as a white spot glowing in the blackness of space, a spot that had been expanding and brightening over the last couple of generations.
Landrieu highlighted a different section of the flow chart.
“We also must reduce our own electromagnetic signature here in the Solar System. This planet is the focus of a radio bubble that has now expanded to a thousand light-years in diameter, and which now encompasses several thousand stars. The bubble sweeps past more stars each year. Sooner or later, one of those stars will be ruled by the Broa.
“Unfortunately, barring the invention of a time machine, we can do nothing about past sins. Somewhere out there, episodes of
I Love Lucy
,
The Honeymooners,
and
The Howdy Doody Show
are sweeping starward, ready to be picked up by a Broan eavesdropping station.” Landrieu halted and smiled at the audience. “I presume you North Americans know those names. Being French, I would have chosen different examples.
“However, the original broadcasts were relatively low power and the strength of these signals is very weak after so many years. As you can see from the diagram…” The holocube flashed to reveal a different colored chart. “The power level of much of what was broadcast by our ancestors has dropped below the level of the cosmic background radiation or has been absorbed by interstellar gas and dust.
“However, the radio noise we ourselves pump skyward is a different matter. We broadcast much more powerful beams at the stars and at frequencies that penetrate gas and dust. These signals are dangerous to us. While we cannot call back our own signals any more than we can call back those of our ancestors, we must strive to limit future emissions to the lowest level reasonably attainable. Therefore, our institute will propose a complete overhaul of our planet’s electromagnetic infrastructure to eliminate such emissions.”
Landrieu reviewed the steps to reduce humankind’s footprint in the universe. They involved a return to the days when electronic signals traveled via copper wire and fiber optic cable. No signal exceeding 100 milliwatts would be allowed at any frequency able to penetrate the ionosphere. For space communications, only comm lasers would be used, and those carefully regulated to prevent beam dispersal.
The timeline for completing the pullback from the stars would be set at twenty years, and when the evacuation ended, each of the 250 ships needed to accomplish the task would be destroyed.
“So long as we are able to travel to other stars, some percentage of humankind will do just that. To prevent a foolish individual from striking out for the Deep Black, we will have to eliminate their capability to do so. That means we must forego starships.”
There was much more to Director Landrieu’s talk. He spoke of new laws to be passed and basic rights to be sacrificed in the pursuit of safety. It was 12:15 hours when his presentation finally wound down.
“That is what we of the Paris Institute will present to parliament in the fall,” Landrieu said in closing. Thank you for listening. I believe it is now time for lunch.”
Chapter Seventeen
Mark’s boss was next on the agenda. As is usual at such meetings, the moderator’s plea to limit the meal to half an hour meant that it took 45 minutes to reassemble a quorum. By the time the principals returned to the stage, three-eighths of the auditorium seats were filled.
Noticeable among those missing was Dieter Pavel.
“Where’s your friend?” Mark asked Lisa as the two of them resumed their seats. Lunch had been a hurried affair at the university’s main dining hall.
“He had work to do,” she replied, “since you wouldn’t take him up on his offer.”
At the break, Pavel had offered to host the two of them at one of Boston’s better restaurants. Mark refused, citing time constraints. He suggested that Pavel accompany them, but Dieter begged off.
“Sorry, but it would have taken too long. I need to be here when my boss speaks.”
“That’s okay,” Lisa replied. “I accepted his invitation to dinner. You’re invited, too, of course.”
“I wonder,” Mark mused, reflecting on his past rivalry with Pavel.
Mark unclipped the datacom from his belt while Lisa rooted around in the oversize handbag she carried. She extracted her comm unit after a few seconds. Both of them keyed for the briefing books the Gibraltar Institute had prepared for the conference. The classic view of the Rock of Gibraltar from the land side was instantly displayed on their screens. The identical logo shimmered in the holocube on the stage.
After the audience settled down, Director Fernandez stepped to the lectern and introduced his colleague from Colorado Springs. Director Hamlin strode to the center of the stage.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank Alan Fernandez for his hospitality this week. He has kept us occupied and fed us well. I would also like to welcome the Members of Parliament and the representatives of the Coordinator. And I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the hard work put forth by the members of my own team to get ready for this meeting.
“Friends, I am here today to share with you the progress we have made in plotting a proactive strategy for ending the Broan threat. Jean-Pierre did me a favor this morning when he outlined the size of the Sovereignty for you. That means I do not have to plow the same ground.
“Jean-Pierre was correct in his main point. We cannot fight them head on. If we had every army there ever was at our disposal, they would be woefully inadequate to launch a frontal assault against the Broa.
“Therefore, let us stipulate that the Broan behemoth is so large that we are like the mouse who accidentally finds himself in the elephant’s cage. He is frightened to be there and spends all of his time trying to keep from being crushed by the elephant’s careless steps. However, being alert to danger is not the same as being so frightened that one loses one’s ability to think.
“Thinking, ladies and gentlemen, is what we have been doing these many months in Colorado Springs. I am here today to brief you on some of our conclusions.
“As Director Landrieu has stated, the most important thing we must safeguard is our anonymity. Should the Broa ever discover the location of Sol, we will lose the war before it has barely begun. Thus, safeguarding the location of Earth must be our first and overriding priority. All of our plans have taken this point into account. We have designed multiple layers of safeguards into our plans to prevent the Broa from discovering where we are to be found in the galaxy. In fact, we have established an entire section that does nothing else.
“It is important that we treat the Broa with respect, but that we not let that respect grow into unreasoning fear. No matter how great their power, the pseudo-simians are not gods sitting atop Mt. Olympus, ready to launch lightning bolts down on any mortal who displeases them. They may be the elephant, and we the hapless mouse, but we are not helpless against them. In studying them, we have noted a number of frailties — weaknesses we can exploit, if only we choose to do so.
“I can hear the questions going through your heads even now. ‘What weaknesses?’ you ask. ‘They are lords and masters of more than a million suns!’
“That very fact points to the first of their frailties. The Broa have built an empire that is impressive in its scope and duration. At first glance, their conquests make them appear so powerful that the only sensible thing for us to do is lie down and let someone throw dirt over us. However, first impressions are not necessarily accurate.
Hamlin smiled. “I am put in mind of something one of my old professors once told me. ‘Dex, lad,’ he said. ‘When faced with an insurmountable problem, sometimes it helps to expand the scope until the solution becomes obvious.’
“
Think
, ladies and gentlemen. We view the Broa as gigantic because we are seeing them from the vantage point of the mouse as we stare upward at the great gray mass towering above us. But size is relative. If one looks at the Broa from a different vantage point, say that of the galaxy as a whole, they do not seem very large at all. In fact, they become merely a bigger mouse.
“Astronomers long argued over whether the probability of life among the stars was high or low, and whether or not the development of intelligence is routine. Our own early explorations answered the first part of that question when we discovered so many terrestrial-class worlds suitable for colonization.
“We have Sar-Say to thank for answering the second part of the ancient SETI debate. Judging from the size of the Sovereignty, we now estimate the likelihood of an intelligent species arising on any world possessing an oxygen atmosphere to be approximately 10 percent.
“When one considers the 200 billion stars in this galaxy alone, and 100 billion galaxies beyond our own, the number of intelligent races in the universe must be truly astronomical! In fact, some of my specialists have argued that intelligent life
must
arise on a terrestrial world, given sufficient time.
“The fact that the Broa have conquered a million species is impressive, but think of all the races they
have not conquered!
Given the target rich environment in which they find themselves, one must question why they stopped at a mere million stars? Why leave a billion or so other races in the galaxy unmolested?
“The answer is obvious, is it not? They have conquered as much territory as they can hold. Having gorged themselves on a feast of stars, they now lie bloated, moaning from the resulting bellyache. What then, are the factors that are holding them back?
“I submit the primary limit to their power is their population. According to Sar-Say, and from data we obtained at Klys’kra’t, the number of Broa is likely less than the total population of Earth. They have a million planets to colonize, yet they cannot reproduce sufficiently to fill even their home world!”
The director reached for a hidden glass of water and slowly sipped while watching the implications sink in. There was a general muttering in the audience. When the murmur died away, Dexter Hamlin continued:
“The Broa are conquerors with a low fertility rate and they are prone to infighting, which to judge by the circumstances of our first contact with them, must depress their population even further. I submit they have long since reached their comfortable span-of-control, and in their avarice, have gone well beyond. What is our evidence for this conclusion? The Voldar’ik had not seen their planetary master in several years, nor did they consider that in the least remarkable.
“Yet, with fewer Broa than humans, how is it that they are able to hold so many other races in bondage? What makes them such potent conquerors? Why do a thousand-trillion sophonts meekly pay homage to these infertile little monkeys?”
“The stargates!” someone yelled from the front row.
“Precisely,” Hamlin answered back. “The stargates!
“The Broa are a one-trick elephant. It is a very good trick, but still just a trick. They are able to keep their subject species in line by essentially imprisoning them in their home star systems. If you are a good slave, if you meet your production quotas, if you do not make trouble, then perhaps you will be allowed to trade with your neighbors. Assert your independence or cross the masters in any way, and suddenly your stargate doesn’t work and your sky fills with Broan warships.
“The stargates are the lever the Broa use to multiply their power a million-fold. Having identified the source of their power, we can design a strategy to use against them. That strategy includes military action within the Sovereignty to be sure, but is not primarily military in nature.
“I tell you here and now that we do not plan a general attack on the Sovereignty. My colleague from Paris was correct when he said to do so would be suicidal. Nor do we propose to launch a direct assault on the Broa themselves. Some have suggested that we bombard their home worlds from space with the biggest bombs which we are capable of manufacturing. I submit to you that were we to do so, we would not only be guilty of immorality, but we would be making a dreadful mistake.
“Their control of the stargates is what holds their subjects in thrall, and that is where we must strike at them. We propose to bring down the Broa by breaking their monopoly on star travel within the Sovereignty. We will do this by giving their captive species the secret of the stardrive!”