Indian Hill (11 page)
“I’ve got two questions for you Lieutenant. And I’m going to be very specific, and I want very specific answers. If you do not know the answers at this time, I want you to do everything in your power to obtain these answers. Because my next call is going to be to the President, and I had better damn well know what I am talking about. Do you understand me son?”
The lieutenant understood well enough to know that the term “son” was not used for endearment. “Sir, yes sir!”
“Lieutenant, I want to know EXACTLY how big that thing is and I want to know EXACTLY how long we have until it makes contact with my beloved planet!”
“Sir, yes sir, the science officer is en route now.”
“What’s his ETA?”
“I would say about
now
, sir,” the lieutenant snapped.
“Captain, why was I awoken at this godforsaken hour? This had better be the emergency that the lieutenant made it out to be. I’ve had just about enough of your emergency response drills,” Dr. Schoville said with just a hint of venom behind it. The professor a short balding man in his middle sixties who looked more like Larry the janitor than one of the world’s leading astrophysicists. That point was further pointed out by his disheveled appearance. It was almost comical, blue jeans with pajama tops, and one slipper paired with one loafer.
“Why Professor, it’s good to see you too,” the captain said sarcastically. “I see that you’ve pulled yourself together well tonight.”
“Oh do zip it Captain, as much as I like you, I have no desire to banter this evening,” the professor said as he plopped down into his control seat.
“Professor, I would not have called you out of bed at this late hour unless it was absolutely imperative.”
“What happened?” the professor grunted “Did the cow jump over the moon?”
“Object J-2378 has changed direction, Phil.”
The professor looked up with a jerk. For the captain to forget protocol and use his first name obviously meant that he was serious. “But that’s impossible, meteors don’t just change course, did it collide with another object and veer off?” the professor asked incredulously.
“No,” the lieutenant spoke. “One minute it was heading off into delta quadrant and then it seemed to hesitate for about ten minutes and then it turned to a heading in this direction.” The lieutenant appeared nervous and a little bit relieved; the man he was talking to was infinitely more capable of answering the captain’s questions.
“That, my dear professor, is why we awoke you at this God forsaken hour,” the captain added. The professor looked nearly as nervous as the lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, could you be a champ and get me a very big cup of coffee, I think I’m going to be here awhile,” the professor said resignedly.
*
*
*
“Captain, for the two hours I’ve been studying this object, it is by no means a natural celestial body,” the professor said later. Had his scientific side not been so curious he felt that he actually might have been afraid.
“Professor, for the record, what exactly are you saying?” the captain fairly demanded. “Do you really expect me to call the President of the
United States
and tell him a space ship with little green men is on a collision course with Earth?
“First off, Captain, I’m fairly certain that this ship will stop before it impacts with our planet, and from what I can tell there is nothing small about this vessel,” the professor half-stammered out. “The ship appears to be roughly half the size of our moon and will be in a tidal influencing position in less than two weeks at its present speed. But I’ll be honest with you, Captain, this ship hasn’t been traveling the stars at its present speed unless it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple of thousand years old. I’m sure that these “beings” have some sort of hyper drive or “warp” drive if you will, that could have them in our neighborhood more in the vicinity of a day or two or quite possibly even an hour or two. If I were you Captain, I would get on the phone with the President
now
.”
The captain could not even begin to fathom how he was going to start this conversation off. He had been through two wars and dozens of skirmishes, but at this moment, on this night, he felt that he was the most out of his depth he had ever been in his entire life.
“Lieutenant, call the President and get the Joint Chiefs of Staff out of their beds, I also want General Burkhalter up here as well.”
“Sir, yes sir!” the lieutenant shouted, sweat now pouring off of his face in rivulets. The captain noted that fact and was mildly amazed considering the ‘mountain,’ as it was affectionately called, was air conditioned to near freezing temperatures to keep the machinery running at peak performance.
Less than an hour later the captain found himself, via satellite hook-up, staring face to face with the most powerful people on the planet, the President, his military leaders and some of the most prominent cabinet members along with the senate and house chairmen.
“Good morning Captain
Moirane
,” the President said almost jauntily for this
time of day
. The captain was surprised that the President knew his name, much less that he was in an affable mood.
“Good morning to you Mr. President,” the captain added as politely as possible. Just because the man was his boss didn’t mean he had to like him, and that was definitely the case here. But then again the captain had never liked any Democratic leader in the Oval Office; the military was always the first to suffer.
“Captain, I have this fairly thorough briefing in front of me but I would like your opinion on this matter. I have some very conflicting theories and proposals being thrown around here, I would most welcome an outside opinion in this grave matter. What are your thoughts?”
“Sir, at this time it is near impossible to theorize on what these “beings” want. At this time we can’t even be sure that there is life on this ship, it could possibly be some sort of probe. We can hope that if there are sentient beings on this ship that they are merely out on an exploratory mission as opposed to a military operation. However, it is my belief that we should prepare for a full scale planetary invasion, but I believe Sir that a pre-emptive strike, as some of your advisers are advocating, would be futile and more than likely fatal.”
“Why is that Captain? My generals here feel that we should launch our shuttles armed with all the nuclear payload they carry, and strike well before this ship ever enters our orbit.”
“Mr. President, with all due respect, these
aliens
…” that even sounded funny to himself, the captain could hardly believe that he was saying the words aliens and wasn’t making up a story for his sons. “Well, these aliens trave
led from a distance that we can
not even fathom at this time in our evolution, it would be a safe call to say that they are
at least two hundred years
ahead of us in technology. It is my opinion and my opinion only, Mr. President, that to attack them with nuclear weapons would only prove to these aliens that we are a hostile species and that we would need to be dealt with accordingly. Quite possibly they are merely curious about another intelligent species in space.”
“Captain, what makes you think that they believe we are an intelligent species?” the President said, stress was beginning to strain his voice.
“Sir, it is mine and Dr Schoville’s opinion that the only way they even noticed us was by radio and television transmissions. We had the computers running simulations for the last hour and as near as we can tell from the distance that that ship is from our planet, they are watching and hearing transmissions from roughly 19
7
0ish. Sir, another assumption that we have made is that these beings most likely have already formed a not so flattering portrait of our species. The vast majority of our television matter is laced with violence.”
“So my point again, Captain, what makes you think that those aliens think we’re intelligent?” That earned a few laughs and helped to lighten the mood for a least a short while.
“All the more reason to strike as soon as possible!” the commander of the Army, General Forbes yelled. Always the tactful one.
“I understand your concern General,” the President stated flatly. “But I agree whole-heartedly with the Captain’s view, we would merely be proving to the aliens that what they are watching on our television transmissions is true, and most likely a full strike would do little more than be an irritation to this ship. No, we must seek a diplomatic solution, although it would be a lot easier for negotiations if we knew what the hell they were up to. Having the upper hand is the key to negotiations and I can assure you, gentlemen, that is not something we possess at this time. Mr. Secretary, could you please get me the Chinese Premier and the Russian President on the line. Thank you Captain
Moirane
, I’ll be in touch.” With that, the huge monitor inside the “mountain” winked out. Captain
Moirane
looked into the screen for a few more minutes, letting the full weight of the events hit him like a tidal wave.
The Captain turned from the screen and approached the lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, go home, enjoy the weekend. And remember, everything that you have seen and heard today is top-secret.”
“I understand sir, I’ll see you on Monday. Sir?” the lieutenant asked.
“Yes Lieutenant,” the Captain answered, already half submerged in other thoughts.
“Are we going to be all right, sir?”
The captain turned back to fully face the lieutenant. “Son,” and now it was clearly meant to be a term of endearment, “I just don’t know.”
“Bud, what’s up with you, you look like a whipped dog,” Paul quipped.
“Paulie, Beth has got me in such a funk I don’t know if I should fart or cry,” I lamented.
“What’s up?” he asked seriously.
“She didn’t come right out and say it, but I think she got back together with Mark.”
“Mike, I’m sorry, but I told you not to get too involved with her. She’s a heartbreak looking for a place to happen.”
“I know you’re right, it’s almost as if I can’t help myself. I know I’m in over my head, but when I see her…”
“Yeah yeah, your other head takes over,” he chided.
“No, it’s not like that. Okay well it’s a little like that. But there’s more, it’s almost like I’m falling…”
“Talbot, don’t say it!” Paul looked mock horrified. “Don’t spend your entire collegiate career on one girl, although she is one hell of a girl. Man, you’ll miss out on so much, and you’d better remember she still has Joe Jock out at
Penn
State
unless she told you that she has other plans for that particular problem. Face it buddy, you’re her plaything, not the other way around. Women have needs too, you just happen to have what she needs now. Although I bet it’s not really all that impressive.” He chortled at his own wit.
“
Blow me
,” I said, but he really did have me thinking that I was merely a pawn in a much larger game.
“Just ride it and her out, I’m not saying to not enjoy your time with her, but don’t get any more emotionally involved than you already are. I can guarantee that you will get irreparably burned. You are my best friend and I don’t want to see you waste away our greatest party years.”
“Thanks
I appreciate that, and I know you’re right, but right now I have no idea how to stop this train. When I’m with her I just know she’s the right one.”
“
S
he’s just Miss Right Now, don’t do this to yourself.”
“I know, well no I don’t
k
now, let’s go get a beer and shoot some pool, I haven’t kicked your ass in something all day, I’m starting to get the DT’s.”
“
J
ust make sure you get some of your balls out of the way so that I’ll have clear shooting lanes!”
The afternoon blurred to late in the night, whether distr
acted drunk or both, Paul beat me
, fifteen games to nine.
