Alien Empire

by Anthony Gillis

  “Boys, this is the way to fly!” said Harker, “Smooth quiet ride, all the comforts of home, and no need for runways! I need to buy me one of these!”

  Wimier smiled, “I think you’ll have your chance someday, Harker, if our men Neem and Jat keep up the good work. I’m impressed at how fast they’re getting information about Elder technology out to companies and out to the public. And I’m amazed at how fast some of it is getting used.”

  “It feels,” he continued, “a bit like the beginning of a second industrial revolution.”

  “That is exactly what it is going to be,” said Karden, “It shows the advantage of getting new ideas out there fast and letting people in the real world decide how to make use of them, play with them, and improve them. We’re adapting fast, and we need to.”

  There was a pause.

  “So, you’re sure they’re going to want to rebuild this?” asked Karden, looking at the burned out buildings below.

  “Yes,” said Wimier, “I fully agree with the recommendations you and your friends have been making about keeping command and control disbursed and coordinating through networks. But people want symbols, and the physical location and formal headquarters of a new world defense coordinating body can only go here, even if not much of the real decision making does.”

  Harker smiled, “World defense coordinating body? That is some poor marketing, boys. If we’re going to get this thing funded and done right, we need a better name.”

  The other two looked at him blankly.

  “How about Global Defense Command?” he said with a grin.

  ///

  Neem and Jat worked at sprawling computer stations overlooking a gigantic laboratory complex. Neem’s area was tidy, Jat’s looked like it was under perpetual construction, with bits of technology strewn about wherever his attention had left them.

  Hundreds of scientific and engineering staff toiled down below. Weapons, force field generators, power plants, engines, and an in-progress replica of an Elder stardrive were arrayed below. In another area, an aircraft rested. It was a tough looking thing, wedge shaped like an Elder fighter, with multiple propulsion ports, but unlike the smooth Elder craft, it bristled with weapons.

  “Ha!” said Jat, “I’ve got what we were looking for! On their inertial dampeners. Don’t know why I didn’t see it before. Here, take a look…”

  Neem looked at the data, and started to think how to apply it. He turned to Jat.

  “Once we get them duplicated, it’ll be the last main missing piece of the MSSA-2.”

  Jat’s quick erratic mind moved on to something else.

  “I hear Chayar’s favored to win the Baccharan elections. Abida leaving to join the new GDC means she’s the big name left. How’ll it feel to date a President?”

  Neem blushed, “Date? I guess. I don’t know why she likes me, and it is so long distance…”

  Jat snorted his awful laugh, “Long distance? We’re just one small world in a big galaxy!”

  ///

  Viris sat in a dark corner full of debris, hunched over her portable computer. Other machines, used only for their extra processing power, sat around her. Behind her was a large, dark, empty space – the unused remainder of her huge office on an upper floor of Republic Tower. She ignored the twinkling lights of the city below. Maybe time to close the blinds, she thought.

  There was so much information to get out about the Elder computer code, to a hungry world of programmers. She was trying to make it as viral as possible, neatly packaging instructions and small tidbits of code. But, she thought just about everyone else outside her few friends was so… slow to grasp the alien architecture of the code.

  Ah well, even the slow kids could pass eventually…

  She got a call.

  “Viris, this is Tayyis. How are you?”

  “As good as can be expected with a rush plan to educate the world’s computer dunces, by which I mean most programmers, on the code they’ll need to run Elder technology.”

  Tayyis laughed.

  “Well the language courses are going more happily.”

  “I’ve noticed. They’re popular. Everyone wants to know how to speak the language of the people who are trying to kill us. Go figure.”

  “There’s an old saying in Halacchar, understand an enemy who doesn’t understand you, and you have the advantage.”

  “I like it. How go things with your alien pals?”

  “I haven’t had as much time as I’d like, but I think a few are starting to trust me.”

  “They should, you mean them well, which is more than I can say for me.”

  “Viris, the Laderathai really are just servants. The Elders found them when they were living in a time of primitive feudalism and religious war, six thousand years ago, rescued them from all that, and basically became their gods. They’ve lived in the close shadow of the Elders ever since, and it has shaped their outlook on many things.”

  “Too bad for them, they caved when they should have fought.”

  “They never had a chance, Viris, imagine how the Elders would have looked to us, if the highest technology we knew was an iron spear, and our knowledge of the world didn’t extend much past the horizon. I suspect what happened even played a role in developing the Elder’s self-conception as guides and masters.”

  Viris stopped arguing. No point. Tayyis had a way of seeing the best in anyone.

  “The others,” continued Tayyis, “are trickier. From what I can tell, the Imri try to stay neutral and focus on their trade. It is a vital safety valve in the Elder system, which mostly runs by command and control rather than markets. The Ara’kaa seem very… fractured in opinion.”

  Now Viris had something to add. “Where there are fractures, there can be cracks. They might have been the ones in Elder uniforms, but if you want my view, it’ll be one of them who first switches sides.”

  ///

  Pavol Harker guided a group of executives from several foreign companies along an observation walkway overlooking one of his factories. Down below were assembly lines of railguns.

  “Neem’s latest, folks, licensed and in the works. More compact, more reliable, and with a higher rate of fire than the guns that helped win at Bacchara. They’re equal to the Elder’s own stuff, and we’re cranking ‘em out in quantity now. Production is up seventy-five percent since…”

  One of the guests interrupted, her voice eager.

  “Is it true about the battle lasers? Production-ready models coming online next month?”

  Harker, too practiced at this game to be bothered by the interruption, didn’t lose a moment.

  “Yep! I’ll let you know when they’re up. As always, licensing comes from Neem-Jat Labs, which much as it pains me, is a nonprofit. If you don’t want to license, the information is out there for free, just not the training, which costs them plenty of money to provide. As for me, just send some other business my way and I’ll be happy to have helped.”

  From the back, another voice joined in, with accented Tadine. “Let us hope that these Elders, they give us that month.”

  “Let us do that, all right,” said Harker. “But in the meantime, all we can do is move as fast as possible to be ready. Now, if you’ll follow me…”

  ///

  The cavernous, reinforced testing chamber was dark, free of distracting energy sources other than the wormhole generator itself. Behind reinforced windows, Neem, Jat, and their team readied.

  “All right,” said Jat, “Here we go again…”

  Things whirred, energy glowed from the generator. Antimatter power plants did their near-silent work.

  A small vortex, a tunnel, a hole in reality, appeared with a small flash of yellow-white energy. Another appeared at the far end of the testing chamber, a quarter mile away. A gun-like device attached to the wormhole generator fired a small steel projectile toward the tunnel. As it did, the wormhole collapsed. The projectile flew across the testing chamber and ripped through a section of the thick ballist
ic padding placed there.

  Jat cursed. Neem frowned.

  “Slag! Too hard to keep the far end stable this deep in a gravity field!” growled Jat.

  “I think this confirms the data from the Elders about why they target the destination ends of the tunnels so far out in star systems. It takes less power and it sure is a lot easier to keep stable. But, we don’t have any other way to test right now,” observed Neem.

  “All right,” muttered Jat, “let’s try again.”

  For the fifteenth time, they powered up the generator, and fired the projectile launcher.

  The projectile entered the wormhole, reappeared at the far end with no apparent time lapse, and a peculiar ringing sound. It had just moved many times faster than the speed of light.

  “Ha!” yelled Jat.

  “It works!” cheered Neem.

  There were cheers and hugs all around the room. They’d made Ground’s first successful test of a wormhole, of faster than light travel.

  “Hey!” said Neem, visibly bouncing with excitement, “Let’s tell everybody!”

  34

  Karden woke to the ringing of his mobile phone. These days, unfortunately, he’d taken to leaving it on even in the middle of the night. One could never know when a time-sensitive call might come in. Retirement was looking better and better. Groggily, he took the call.

  “Yes?”

  “Karden! This is Jat! We’ve got it. We did it!”

  “Eh…I’m sorry, you two do a lot of things, what exactly?”

  “The stardrive! We duplicated the Elder stardrive!”

  Karden’s head cleared. He tried to process what he’d heard.

  “That is amazing. So, we could, in principle, build our own starships?”

  Neem interjected, “Yes! But it is too difficult to generate a stable enough wormhole here on the surface. Being deep in a gravitational field interferes. We need to take the lead of the Elders on this, and make our wormholes out in space. That means we need to test in space!”

  Jat added, “It means getting help and funding. A lot of it.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” said Karden.

  “With your new job, I think you can do a lot,” said Jat.

  Karden groaned.

  “Don’t remind me.”

  ///

  The leaders and diplomatic representatives of more than a hundred countries were gathered in the newly rebuilt Hall of Nations. It was a much lighter and airier place than the old building. Glass walls gave an open view of the plaza in front, and the equally new Global Defense Command headquarters beyond. With that vista to his back, Dren Wimier was at a podium, concluding a speech. Karden, Abida, and Varen sat on chairs to Wimier’s left.

  Karden was still boggling at the chain of events and conversations that had led him to this spot. Was it real? Not so long ago, he’d been a refugee, fleeing to Bacchara for fear of arrest, not so long before that, he’d been a comfortable senior professor of History. Now, here he was. To his left, Abida wore his old plain uniform as military commander of the rebel forces of Bacchara, though with new GDC insignia on his collar, and a grimly determined expression. To his right, Varen was in his new Tadine general’s uniform, though again with GDC collar boards. His expression was more cautious, and showed a hint of surprise.

  Wimier himself had been in hiding not so long ago, now, as one of the few major political figures who’d been skeptical of the Elders from the beginning, as the one who’d saved the world’s most famous scientists from arrest, he had immense influence. With the end of Sivax Cha’s term, he’d been elected the new Coordinator of the Council of Nations.

  The speech was wrapping up.

  “And so as it is my great pleasure to introduce the first leaders of the new Global Defense Command, though it is hardly necessary, you already know them... the heroes of Bacchara!”

  There was an overwhelming hum of applause.

  “Professor Haral Karden, mastermind of the worldwide neutralization of the Elders, and of the defense at Ais, Strategic Director.”

  Applause.

  Karden stood up, was thankful he didn’t have to make a speech, yet.

  “General Hesdi Abida, commander of Baccharan forces and architect of the anti-air tactics that brought down half the Elder fighter force, Director of Ground Operations.”

  Applause.

  “Lieutenant Air General Varen, who led the high altitude surprise attack on, and personally disabled, the Vigilant, Director of Space Operations.”

  Applause.

  Karden smiled at the titles. Wimier had been clever to use neutral institutional titles rather than new military ranks. It would keep national jealousies under some control, even though when the Elders returned, Abida and Varen would be wielding authority above that of Marshals.

  Wimier stepped down from the podium. Oh drat, thought Karden, time for that speech.

  ///

  The grand conference room atop Global Defense Command headquarters was bright, lofty, and airy. Its glass walls opened onto rooftop walkways set amidst an astonishing array of communications dishes. Defensive antiaircraft batteries of railguns and missile launchers were placed at either end of the sprawling roof.

  At one end of a vast, brushed-steel table, Karden, Abida, Varen, and Wimier sat close in conversation.

  “Neem and Jat are close to completing their prototype starship,” said Karden. “It is taking a little longer than expected, because they interpreted ‘prototype’ to mean armed to the teeth and equipped with energy shields.”

  Wimier and Varen chuckled, but Abida kept the same intense expression he’d been wearing for days.

  “How is the MSSA-2 program coming?” asked Wimier.

  “They’re ready to go into full production,” said Varen, “I’ve been test-driving the prototype, and I’m impressed. As with the other Neem-Jat work, they’re licensing it to anyone who is willing to build them.”

  “Which is a growing number of companies,” replied Wimier, “I’m still astonished at how fast the private sector has moved into action. Although of course, government spigots are pouring cash into the war effort around the world.”

  “I think,” said Karden, “operating militaries and paying for the equipment they need is exactly what governments should be doing, while leaving the actual making of things to those who pay some price for failure.”

  “I might be starting to agree with you, up to a point,” said Wimier. “Though right now, we’re all going to pay a huge price for failure.”

  Karden turned to Abida, “How go your plans?”

  Abida frowned, “I am encountering some resistance from national leaders. It is one thing to pay for fine new fighter craft and advanced weapons, it is another to allow someone to issue instructions to your army, or to deal directly with your people and attempt to organize an armed militia.”

  “I’ll keep working on that one,” said Wimier, “I’ll try to get some sense in their heads.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Wimier,” said Abida, “I hope we have time.”

  Now it was Wimier’s turn to frown. “Which brings to mind, what are the Elders up to? I hate to say it, but this long delay makes me think that when they come, they’ll come in overwhelming force.”

  “Fortunately,” said Karden, “We are soon going to have a means to go check up on them.”

  The others looked at him.

  “You mean, repairs on the Vigilant?” said Wimier.

  “No, so far those are continuing to go slowly, let alone training a crew of several thousand. Neem and Jat’s ship, prototype or not, can be ready faster. However, that requires getting a full model of the stardrive working.”

  “And I can assume, this will need funding, and more testing,” said Wimier, thoughtfully.

  “In space,” confirmed Karden. “If we get moving quickly, we’ll have our own star fleet of one. And, I have just the commander in mind.”

  All eyes turned to Varen.

  ///

  Harker
, Neem, Jat, accompanied by a crowd of VIP visitors and a pair of news crews, surveyed a long row of MSSA-2 fighters in a manufacturing line. The enormous brightly-lit factory complex was just one of several now in place around the world.

  “Production is up to eighty a month at this facility alone, and we should be double that by year end,” said Harker grinning, “worldwide, we’re closing on nearly a thousand a month. In fact, finding and training good pilots is going to be a bigger problem than production.”

  Neem smiled, “We’ll be way more prepared for them than at Bacchara! We can meet them in space, in medium orbit, and with a lot more fighters!”

  “And this isn’t all,” added Harker, “Even now, we’re working on prototypes for new deep space warships, using the Elders own technology, that will be able to fight as far as out as the edges of the solar system.”

  “What about rumors of a star ship?” asked a woman in the crowd, a software executive, “those tests you’ve been conducting in orbit?”

  “Just wait and see,” said Jat, with a cryptic smile.

  “What about how much all this is costing, when we don’t even know if the Elders are coming back?” said another voice, eloquent and measured.

  Jat lost his smile. The voice belonged to Selnin Rorder. Under pressure from Harker, he’d done his best to ignore the legendary newscaster. Years earlier, when Jat was newly famous and still in his teens, Rorder had gone out of his way both to deflate his ego and to criticize him for applying his talents to useless, theoretical pursuits rather than important problems like hunger and inequality.

  Harker was unfazed, “Mr. Rorder, I would defer on that to the international leadership team. Updated numbers should be out soon, but there was…”

  “What do you mean IF, Selnin?” interrupted Jat, “The last transmission the Elders sent out was a distress signal calling for reinforcements.”

  Rorder smiled, a smug and confident smile, “And have you gotten any confirmation back from the Elders themselves? Say… messages trying to reach their people currently in prison? Ultimatums? Threats? Anything at all?”

  Jat was looking agitated, “Why would send any? Did they warn us when they first showed up, or let us know what they were planning?”