by Howard Marsh
A small individual seated to the rear of the room rose and worked his way through the other seated attendees. He was dressed in normal clothing, but was immediately recognized as an alien, not a human being. He was small, as expected, but he held himself with a military bearing. His right arm was in a sling, but other than that he looked healthy as he approached the table and stood next to Petrov.
Seduro and Billingsley obviously had met this alien before and simply smiled as he approached them. But Brad noticed that Haverford looked as surprised as he was. An enemy alien was the last thing that they had expected to encounter at a meeting of Nebula’s high command.
The alien began speaking. His spoken words were totally unrecognizable, as could be expected since the language was different from any human languages. But his speech did have some similarities to human speech in sound, cadence, and pitch variations. The basic sounds of the words were somewhat guttural, like Russian or German, but they were also pronounced with tonal variations that reminded Brad of Chinese, although the words themselves were far from Chinese or any other Asian dialect that Brad had ever heard.
The translation device that the alien wore on his chest responded to his words almost instantaneously. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.” The translation came out in very crisp, unaccented English, similar to what you would hear from an American television announcer. “My name is Radeek, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.”
Brad noticed that the name coming from the translator and the spoken sounds from the alien himself were actually pretty close. He also saw that Radeek wore a device in one of his ears. He assumed that the bulk of the translation work was done by the larger device on his chest and that it sent translations back to the ear piece when human speech needed to be translated.
Radeek continued, “I am an officer in the Chanreek forces. This is the name that we give our species, as you call yours human. I was first officer on our battleship when we attempted to establish our presence on the planet you call Mars. I was in the combat information center, a few decks down from the bridge when your soldiers surprised us and destroyed our ships. I was near an escape capsule at the time, and that’s how I was able to survive. Your physicians did a very good job taking care of my injuries as well as the injuries of the other survivors, and I thank you for that. But we still are enemies, and we need to find a way to avoid mutual destruction, for that is surely what will happen if we continue this war. You may have won the initial battles, and I’ve been made aware of the plagues that you launched on our fleet and the enormous loss of life among my people. But you must know that we have much more power to apply and if this goes on, we could make Earth unlivable for either of us. That would serve no purpose, so we must find another way.”
He paused for a few seconds before continuing. “Doctor Petrov and I, and some of your intelligence officers, have had many conversations, and I believe that they will confirm that what I say makes sense and is an accurate description of our objectives and intents. I hope that you will consider what I say and then judge for yourselves what would be the best course of action for your people, and I hope for mine also.”
Radeek then began to explain the Chanreek perspective on the events that led to the current situation. He started with the discovery that their home world would be destroyed by the supernova and the massive effort to build thousands of space ships to evacuate their people. They built three evacuation fleets, the one that found Earth being one of them. The other two went off in different directions, hoping that at least one of the three would find a world to settle on and preserve their race.
The fleets carried no animals. It was not like Noah’s ark of the bible. Instead, they stored the DNA of all the plants and animals that they would recreate once they found a suitable world. But they did manage to accommodate nearly all of their own species. Each fleet carried approximately two billion of them, plus life support for producing food from hydroponic tanks and producing air and water, some from recycling and the rest from chemical processes that could extract the appropriate atoms from material in space that they collected at each place where they loitered and explored.
When their scout informed them of Earth, their high command made a decision that this would be their new home world. The scout’s message advised that the human population was sentient but was very far behind them technologically. It was also a very warlike species that had just ended a massive world war, concluding with a primitive nuclear weapon. They advised that conquering Earth would be an easy task, and when the fleet received this message, it immediately made its way to Earth as fast as it could.
The initial plan was to conquer Earth but not to annihilate the human population. They would be prepared to use biological agents that their scout had produced, but that would be a last resort. Their first choice would be to show their enormous military strength through a few brief demonstrations, with minimal loss of life, and then order the Earth governments to meet their demands to settle on the planet. They never expected to find that the humans were so advanced militarily. That changed the strategy, since they realized that the humans would not give in so easily. A war to forcibly take control of Earth would now be necessary.
It was clear from what Radeek said that the Chanreeks still thought that Nebula’s technology represented the overall state of development on Earth and that the presence of the more primitive aircraft and other technologies was simply a high-low mix that the humans used for some unexplained reason.
He continued to explain that the fleet possessed a large number of thermonuclear weapons and small robot ships that could evade most defenses. None of these had been used yet for several reasons. One was that the Chanreeks didn’t want to damage the planet too badly. They wanted to settle soon rather than have to go off at light speed and return when hundreds or thousands of years had passed and the planet was habitable again. The other reason was that they didn’t want the humans to see these other weapons and possibly find a way to counter them before a massive attack was launched. They had become very wary of the human ability to surprise them, so they held this “trump card” very closely and hoped not to use it at all.
“We are now in a very difficult position,” he said. “You have killed most of our people with your plagues, and you know that our leaders have decided that they have no option other than to settle on Earth. At this point, they probably are developing an action plan, and it probably involves a direct attack on Earth with all the forces that they can muster. I expect that they will first try, once again, to penetrate your defenses and cause you to surrender, but they don’t have too many alternatives any longer. You destroyed most of the heavy warships, and you’ve prevented them from establishing the fire base on Mars and building the platform ship to bring heavy artillery close enough to Earth to make you surrender. I expect that they’ll attempt another strike, this time probably from a direction high above or below the Earth’s orbital plane. But your planetary defenses will probably be able to defeat this, so the only remaining options may be the biological attack or the massive thermonuclear strike. Your scientists told me that the biological agents that were sent to our fleet were ones that you constructed to fool us, so that attack wouldn’t work, and we would be left only with the thermonuclear option. This must be prevented.”
At this point, Haverford spoke up. “And just what do you propose that we do? Our only interactions with your people have been very violent, and I see no opportunity to discuss things calmly. We only want to kill each other. We now seem to have the upper hand. Most of your people have died from the plagues that we launched, and most of your warships have been destroyed. We’ve taken control on Mars and have the heavy cannons under our control, so your ships can’t even approach. Why don’t your people just go away and save what you have rather than risk another battle? We also have thermonuclear weapons, and we could probably destroy what’s left of your fleet if we get into a massive exchange.” This was a misstatement of Earth’s real capabilities
, but neither Haverford nor any of the others wanted this alien to understand the actual situation. If they did know how weak the Earth defenses really were, they’d be able to plan an attack that would probably succeed. The only thing that held them back so far was their belief that the Earth forces had powerful cannons on the surface of the planet and could destroy any of their attacking ships long before they got into range to use their own weapons.
“We can’t and won’t abandon our task to settle here,” Radeek responded. “That was a firm decision that was made as soon as we received the message from the scout. It was do or die, as your saying goes.”
Seduro now spoke up. “I understand your position as a warrior, Colonel Haverford. But we’ve had some long conversations with Radeek, and we think that we do have a way out other than continuing the fight. Let him explain his proposal.”
Radeek then continued. “Earth appears to have enough room for us to settle what’s left of our people. There would be some relocation of humans, but it shouldn’t be too disruptive, and we could coexist while we terraform Mars. We’d have to create an Earthlike environment, but that is within our capabilities. Gravity generators and power sources could allow us to increase the atmospheric pressure, establish surface water, and begin to grow plants. We could bring additional mass to Mars from asteroids and moons of the major planets, and the total mass of the planet could be increased to where we wouldn’t need artificial gravity any longer. It would be a major undertaking, but we could turn Mars into another home world in five or six decades, and there would be room for both our populations. I propose that you contact our leadership with this offer. They would probably accept it.”
“This is where you come in, Colonel Lincoln,” Seduro said. “Let’s convene in private so we can discuss this.”
That was the cue for everyone but Seduro, Billingsley, Haverford, and Brad to leave the room. Three security officers took Radeek back to his quarters in another part of Ops, and the door to the room was locked once all the others were gone.
Then Seduro began. “Brad, I want you to take Radeek back to his fleet to make them a proposal. I want Professor Ambrose to join the two of you since he’s had quite a bit of experience dealing with the Chanreeks via their robots and he’s also been reading most of the information that they send into storage. He’s more familiar with their attitude than anyone else and would be very useful when you start to negotiate with them.”
“Why me?” was Brad’s reply to the very surprising order from Seduro.
“Either you or Brendan would have to go,” he replied, “and I need Brendan here in case things take a turn for the worse. Besides, you’ve had quite a bit of experience dealing with the Chanreeks via their robots, and you’ve also been reading most of the information that they send into storage. So you understand their position better than anyone except Harry.”
“Well, I’m not sure that I like the idea of dealing with them. We’ve been at each other’s throats, and I’m a soldier, not a diplomat. I’m not sure that I’d be able to control my anger when meeting the leaders of a race that wants to exterminate us. Why not go yourself or send B? Either of you would be better than me.”
“It’s precisely because you’re a soldier and not a diplomat Brad. We might miss some subtle indication that it’s all just a trick to get their weapons close enough to Earth to do us harm, or maybe it’s an intelligence ploy on their part to see just how strong we are. You’d be a lot more skeptical than us, and you’d be more alert to anything of a military nature. Besides, B and I will have our hands full with the politicians in all the nations. We have to get them to agree to cede a good bit of territory to the Chanreeks, at least until Mars is ready for habitation. No, you’re our best candidate, so you’ll go along with Harry Ambrose.”
“What about Radeek?” Haverford said. “Is he aware of our actual capabilities?”
Billingsley replied, “No. He hasn’t been anywhere except for a few places in Ops and one trip to Prime. He doesn’t know any more than their command knows about our capabilities. In fact, they probably know more than him by now. He was taken out of the battle early on, so he didn’t see our use of the converted transports or the mines.”
“OK,” Haverford said. “But I still don’t like the idea of sending him back when he’s had a chance to see us up close and when he might have some ideas of his own about how to defeat us. I’d rather …”
“Look,” Seduro interjected. “This is what we already decided to do. Doctor Petrov assures us that Radeek is not being deceptive. They even gave him something like a truth serum, and they polygraphed him and monitored his expression, body language, and all the other things to detect lies or duplicity. The intelligence professionals also took part in this, and everyone agrees that he is almost certainly being straight with us.”
“It’s the almost that worries me,” Haverford replied. But it was clear that the decision had been made, so he let Seduro and B continue with the plan. They discussed the specific process to contact the Chanreeks and send the negotiators. Radeek gave them what they needed to make contact, and Harry’s connection into the robot network would let them send the message through the Chanreeks’ own systems.
Brad spoke up and pointed out that this would compromise the fact that Nebula could read Chanreek traffic in the robot network, and that would eliminate the most important advantage that they had up to this point.
Seduro waved it off. “They must already suspect that,” he replied.
So the plan was firmly set. Brad, Harry, and Radeek would try to go to the alien fleet to begin negotiations, and Seduro and B would get the national leaders on Earth to line up behind a plan to give away huge chunks of their territory. “Good luck,” Brad thought to himself. “If this works, Seduro is a magician.” But he kept his mouth shut, like a good soldier, and prepared to make the trip into enemy territory, unarmed and with a senior enemy officer who knew more about Nebula than Nebula knew about his people.
*
Brad arrived back on Mars shortly after the other reinforcements from Earth had arrived. They’d already staked out positions at the other five guns and were building small living quarters at each place, so they could have extended stays there. They used prefabricated, air-inflatable shelters that could be erected in about an hour. The shelters weren’t as comfortable as the bunker near the Chanreek base camp, but they were good enough for a stay of a day or two, before being relieved by the next crew.
The gun repairs were also nearly complete, to Brad’s surprise. It turned out that the fire control and radio parts that were destroyed were almost identical to the same types of parts in other guns that had been salvaged. Judith was able to adapt them. Reloading software was even easier, since Ludmila already knew how the code worked. Harry and Yuri had been giving her source code from the Chanreek archives, and she simply copied what she needed and reloaded it through a connection that Judith made to the input ports. So Mars was now a strong fire base, firmly in human control. If the Chanreeks attempted to approach, they’d be blown away before they got close enough to be a threat.
Brad entered the bunker and took off his suit. “Good work folks,” he said as he joined them in the planning room. “Now get ready for the next phase. It’s a bit different from what we imagined we’d have to do.”
He then explained the plan, including the fact that he and Harry would take a senior enemy officer to the Chanreek fleet and try to start negotiations for them to live on Earth while Mars was being terraformed.
Everyone listened silently, not sure whether Brad was just kidding or if he was serious. As he went on, it became clear that this was no joke. He definitely was serious. No one said a word, too stunned to even think of any questions to ask. They never thought of negotiating with the alien enemy, and the notion of terraforming Mars seemed the stuff of fiction, certainly not reality.
Harry was not only surprised. That was too mild a word to describe his emotions as he listened and learned of this new role
that had been assigned to him. Just joining Nebula and going to Mars to fight aliens were beyond anything he could imagine on that day when he was approached by Walter Ferguson. But this new assignment was totally incomprehensible. He was a scientist, not a diplomat. They turned him into a bit of a soldier, but even there he didn’t get involved very much in direct shootouts. That was for people like Lu, or Brad, or Brendan. He didn’t know if he would be able to do anything productive if he was in an alien command ship, surrounded by these beings who, until now, he was trying to help Brad and Brendan kill. And, he recalled, these aliens were doing their best to kill him too.
Brad continued, “Harry and I will return to Earth, along with two of our soldier robots. Harry will take one of the portable interface headsets so that he can work with the robots on the trip to the Chanreek fleet. The Chanreeks may confiscate everything when we get there, but maybe not. In any case, we’ll be able to eavesdrop on the robots for a while, and having a couple of soldier robots with us could be useful.”
“What about translators?” Harry asked.
“We’ll each have a set, and we’ll bring one for the Chanreeks to use. It’s a larger device that can send and receive, like a speaker-phone. It was built specifically for this purpose and has software that prevents any echo due to round-trip feedback to other translators.”
“And what about this alien officer that we’re taking with us?”
