Mike Jenson took the lead and asked the next obvious question. "Lt. LeBlanc, you used that ray pistol in the film. You said your job was to reverse engineer tech. So what have you learned from working on the saucer and the gun?"
LeBlanc shrugged. "One thing is for sure. We can't come anywhere near their power source for either one. Given our current level of knowledge and technical expertise, we're not able to understand let alone duplicate their power sources."
"The energy it takes to create the beam for the pistol is enormous! There is a cylindrical module in the grip of the pistol that apparently provides the juice for the discharged beam. It appears to work just like a battery. Examination by X-rays and electron microscope reveal nothing. The scientists on my team are fearful to cut into the cylinder because it might explode or be rendered inoperable. We removed the module before placing the pistol on the table here, or there would have been holes not only in General Collier but also in the concrete walls."
"The same or similar energy works the saucer. The center of the saucer's lower deck contains the power source for the craft. Part of the mechanism appears to generate some kind of field to nullify gravity and provide propulsion."
General Collier rose from his seat and flicked the switch to draw back the blackout curtains. Sunlight streamed into the room, a welcome change from the gloomy, emotionally charged atmosphere that had been building up.
"I have prepared a summary packet of information we have concerning everything our military and scientific research has been able to find out about this threat."
As he passed out the large packets to each person, he continued, "You will review all this information, create a list of pertinent questions, your ideas on how we should go about preparing to defend ourselves against this alien menace, your equipment needs and supply requirements. We will reconvene this meeting day after tomorrow at 0800 hours."
And with that, the meeting ended.
Jim Blunt delayed leaving the room and quietly closed the doors after everyone else had departed. General Collier sat down heavily in his chair and waited expectantly for Blunt to speak.
"I don't have a good feeling about Heinbaum," Blunt began. "He appears to be a supercilious, Harvard educated snob with delusions of grandeur."
"Perhaps," replied Collier. "But he is the top man in his field on high energy plasma. If anyone can understand and duplicate the alien power systems, he's the one to do it."
Both Blunt and Collier felt the pressure tickling just behind their eyes as a picture of a weasel-like creature with facial features closely resembling John Heinbaum appeared in their minds. Whatsit was giving them his assessment of Heinbaum, and both men chuckled.
"You too?" Blunt directed at the alien.
Whatsit cocked his head and looked at them as the left side of his mouth wrinkled upwards. He then nodded in a very human way, having learned the common signal for agreement.
Chapter 3 – What To Do
Everyone was again seated at the conference room table at the appointed time with the blackout curtains closed. The seating arrangement had changed. Mike Jenson and Lucy Smith were now seated side by side with Diane Hoffman taking the other chair beside Smith. Jerome McPherson and Tom LeBlanc sat next to each other on the side of the table near the windows. John Heinbaum seated himself at the opposite end of table from General Collier. If you hadn't known the General was in charge of the meeting, you might have come to the incorrect conclusion Heinbaum was the chairman of the meeting. Jim Blunt sat to the left of General Collier. Whatsit was not present.
General Collier began. "You each look rested. I presume you are ready to proceed. Who wants to begin?"
Dr. John Heinbaum was out of the box immediately. He had decided to wear a white lab coat thinking it would enhance his scientific aura and self-importance.
"The obvious solution is to duplicate and enhance the power source of the aliens and destroy them with it," he said matter-of-factly, his beady eyes darting to each person.
"To that end I will need full access to the alien saucer's power room and the ray pistol. Here is my list of equipment and laboratory requirements. I expect quantitative results within six months. With dedicated manufacturing facilities under my supervision, power mechanisms equal to and greater than those of the aliens will provide overwhelming defensive and offensive capabilities for the United States well within the 60 year time frame postulated by Major Blunt."
Heinbaum then sat back in his chair, a smug look of confidence in the genius of his plan glowing on his face.
Jim Blunt knew he was going to have to work with this ego maniac for a long time, and he knew that Heinbaum, for all his bluster and overbearing personality, was essential to getting any understanding at all of the alien power source. So he responded as diplomatically as he could.
"Very good ideas, Dr. Heinbaum, and your suggestions and observations will be given full consideration. Everyone here knows how valuable your contributions are going to be to the protection of our Country." Then he continued. "I want to make it clear right now that it is the entire Earth which is threatened by this menace. It is our goal to protect the entire Earth, not just the United States!"
"Okay, who wants to go next?"
"I will," replied Lt. McPherson.
"These aliens are like a marauding barbarian horde putting a castle under siege. Let's say Heiny over there comes up with an answer to their power source so we have some kind of weapon we can use for defense. If I'm the aliens, I'm not stupid. Just as soon as I realize the Earth has powerful weaponry, I’ll just sit out in space far enough away that I can't get hurt. Then I'll lob fire and stones down on the castle from the safe distance until I break through all those defenses. Then I can come in and wipe out all remaining resistance."
Dr. John Heinbaum was sputtering as he angrily shouted back at McPherson. "You slack-jawed idiot! You have no concept of the theoretical power I'll be able to achieve with my understanding of the alien technology. My weapons will be able to reach out and flick away the alien attack with ease. My predictions show Earth casualties at acceptable levels and those will be concentrated outside the United States!"
"Acceptable levels of casualties!" exclaimed McPherson with derision written all over his face.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," modulated General Collier. "Calm down. We need to be constructive in our responses."
He then looked at Heinbaum and said, "So Doctor, given your theoretical assumptions about your success in unlocking the alien's power source, what is your assumption about the effective range of a weapon you would devise?"
Heinbaum had calmed down some, but the angry flush in his face was quite evident. "I would suppose that any large weapon would have a range of effectiveness reaching the orbit of the moon, say 240,000 miles, give or take."
"Give or take," grated McPherson. The flush in his face was almost a match for the color of his hair. "Our alien friends come from 30 light years away, travel all that distance in multiple spacecraft designed to take over our planet and enslave the survivors. You think they're going to just sit within range of your weapon and be destroyed. What kind of a fool are you?"
"Well Mr. Military Weapons Expert," Dr. Heinbaum angrily replied. "What supposed wisdom do you bring to the table that will do a better job than my plan?"
"Actually, Heiny," McPherson with a sneer, "Having heard your summary, my plan embraces yours 'cept that mine will work and yours won't."
"You see, when you have a disadvantage in strength, as we do, you must use stealth and the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy against itself. There is no question the Chrysallamans are more technologically advanced than we are by a long shot. They have enormous amounts of power available to them with knowledge and experience of how to use it, and they have room to maneuver. We're stuck in one place like sitting ducks. We will prepare for a siege that will bring eventual ruin and death to most of us. The Chrysallamans are confident we're like ants under their feet they can kill at will. Humans to them a
re like fire ants are to us. Fire ants can sting us, but we can kill them with fire, poison, or just plain stomping them. So the aliens can kill us by raining fire down on us with their ray guns, poisoning us or figuratively stomping on us by throwing asteroids at the Earth."
"The Chrysallamans know we can somewhat defend ourselves because we shot down one of their saucers and killed the crew. Realistically our demonstration only served to alarm and annoy them. Yes those fire ants can sting. Big deal. Just bring a more powerful extermination device and destroy the annoyance. In other words, just bring a bigger hammer!"
Mike Jenson broke in. "You paint a pretty bleak picture, Lieutenant. Do you have any sunshine to brighten it up?"
"Yes I do," the flame haired Scotsman replied.
"It is my idea to move forward with Dr. Heiny's belief he can analyze, duplicate and enhance the power source of the Chrysallamans. Once that is done we will create light to medium based defensive and offensive weapons deployed in and around likely military and civilian target areas. Finally, we will equip ground forces around the world with hand carried weaponry. We let the Chrysallamans land their major forces and wait for them to get comfortable with their takeover of the docile Earthlings. Then, in a coordinated attack, we wipe out as many of the aliens as possible and capture or destroy their equipment."
Jenson asked, "Why not just create several large installations with the power to reach out and destroy them once they're within an optimal range?"
"The problem is such a plan gives us only one big punch," McPherson responded.
"It will simply be a sting although a big one. They'll become wary, retreat to a safe distance and adopt the strategy of the siege of Earth. They'll just sit back and destroy us from afar, out of the range of our weapons."
He continued, "We can't fight a war in space with the aliens. They're way too far ahead of us on space flight. We have to let them land on Earth. We have to convince them the fire ants are still just fire ants. The principal strategy will be guerrilla warfare. Hit and run. Live to fight another day so to speak. But there is a big downside. Human casualties will be high. An obvious response by the aliens to hit and run tactics will be to obliterate large numbers of humans in retaliation for the guerrilla tactics. This response must be prepared for and frankly ignored if we humans have any chance of saving the majority of our race."
As McPherson's words sunk in, Diane Hoffman decided it was time to present her ideas. As she spoke she looked over the top of her glasses.
"Everyone, there is a rather daunting problem with both Dr. Heinbaum's and Lt. McPherson's plans. As we have personally witnessed from our contact the other day with Whatsit, the Chrysallamans have the mental power to control our minds and with their individual force fields, added physical strength which we can't normally match. They'll undoubtedly use their mental powers to take over control of any attackers and turn the attackers upon each other. Humans will end up killing humans, and the Chrysallamans easily win."
She could see the realization sinking in with everyone in the room.
She continued, "There is another very important asset none of you have considered."
Waiting a moment to let that statement sink in, she said, "Our people themselves. I believe humans can be prepared to fight the Chrysallamans with at least equal if not greater mental and physical abilities."
Jim Blunt immediately broke in, and he was just a little overheated in his response. "Dr. Hoffman, I personally watched one of my soldiers get his arm torn off his body by one of the lizards. It was fast and brutal. I have worked for months to train myself not to be mentally controlled by one of the little ones. I'm here to tell you that the normal human, trained or not, is no match for these things!"
Hoffman looked at him as she pulled a stray curl of hair out of her face, “I have to defer to your experience, Major. No normal human could possibly matchup in physical or mental strength with a Chrysallaman.” she quietly replied.
"Now wait a minute there Doc," chimed in Lt. Jenson. "You said no normal human. Just exactly what do you mean?"
Peering above her glasses again like a lecturing professor, Hoffman replied. "I propose that humans be genetically altered to be mentally and physically superior to the Chrysallamans."
To say that jaws dropped, frowns formed and heads began shaking back and forth in disbelief and rejection was a gross understatement.
Heinbaum jumped first. "I'll be damned if you'll try to turn me into a giant, green lizard!"
To which Jerome McPherson replied with a glint in his eyes, "Might be an improvement!"
Even Lucy Smith chimed in with, "Dr. Hoffman, we want to defeat and study the aliens, not become one of them."
Hoffman was not put off. She pressed on. "I certainly agree with you that most if not all people would react the same way you just did . . . not accepting what they don't understand. Resisting change is an historical fact with people. Not to mention the religious objections that would certainly come up."
"However," she continued, "I don't have to remind you that the purpose of this committee is to come up with a plan to save the human race from probable extinction. Some hard choices are going to have to be made!"
Tom LeBlanc had been quiet up to now. He slowly got to his feet and walked over to a poster board on an easel in the corner of the room, picked up a pen, looked at Diane Hoffman and said, "Ok, Doc, why don't you describe the Frankenstein you envision."
"Please don't be so dramatic, Lieutenant," she replied. "There would be no visible physical change in appearance of any kind. Let me explain," she continued.
"There are documented studies, worldwide, of humans displaying extraordinary," she paused momentarily, "let's call them skills although I prefer the term 'uniques'. Strength, endurance, agility, eyesight, hearing, intelligence, and, yes, extrasensory perception or ESP."
LeBlanc quickly wrote down the skills as she listed them.
As she spoke, Hoffman could tell that McPherson and Jenson were not going along with her train of thought. The eye rolls and sideways smirks were a giveaway. They just had a hard time giving up their military training and backgrounds she thought. Heinbaum was openly derisive, evidenced by his snorts of disgust. But Diane could tell that LeBlanc and Blunt were interested. They had been in close contact with Whatsit and his tech and wanted something, anything, that might give soldiers an advantage in a battle. Lucy Smith was hard to read behind those thick glasses. General Collier's face was non-committal, but his arms were crossed as he sat back in his chair.
Diane calmly continued. "I'm not necessarily talking about Olympic athletes although they are very important. I'm referring to people who are unique. Let me give you some examples."
"Doc, if it's OK with everyone, I'll list your examples on the board as you go," LeBlanc said.
Hoffman nodded and looked at the group around the table. "There is a man in Germany, Hans Gutlang, who is reported to have lifted the front end of a 3-ton class half-track transport off one of his fellow soldiers where it had run over his friend on a muddy road in France. The Dalai Lama is a Tibetan spiritual leader selected in part for his ability to view and interact with the spiritual world. There is the case of James 'Skullreader' LaRene, in New Orleans, who has supposedly demonstrated abilities to communicate with the dead. Sgt. George Sanger is a Marine sniper with a measured visual acuity of 20/5. In other words, he can see at 20 feet what a normal person can only see at 5 feet. John Tripman is a blind man who has learned to see by hearing. In other words, he can visualize objects around him by listening to sound waves bouncing off the objects. I can list other unique people with very interesting powers."
"Dr. Hoffman," John Heinbaum smugly replied. "We need a general response to the aliens if they return as predicted, something I have not been convinced will happen. If we assume they return and pose a danger in 60 years, I remind you, what good are these people you refer to? They're just odd people who will be dead or too old to help." He was even more pleased with himself when he s
aw nods from Smith, Jenson, and even McPherson.
"Dr. Heinbaum, I agree with you," Diane smoothly replied to the surprise of everyone. "But you've jumped ahead of me."
"Naturally," she continued, "I want to conduct tests on each of my selected uniques with Whatsit, our resident Chrysallaman, to see if they're able to compete with him on an equal basis mind to mind so to speak. The physical abilities will be tested separately. If the unique's abilities are sufficient in our judgment to give us some measure of defense and even offense against the Chrysallamans, then I will move forward."
Jenson was the first to reply. "Just exactly what do you mean by move forward, Doctor Hoffman?"
"Why, Lieutenant," she smiled. "I intend to find out the genetic sequence they have that gives them their uniques and give those genetic sequences to all humans!"
General Collier broke in immediately. "Dr. Hoffman, no one in the Pentagon will ever approve wholesale genetic tampering with people. It just won't happen!"
"Yeah, especially when the result is this." stated Lt LeBlanc, as he pointed to a drawing he had just put on the board. It was of a man with monstrous eyes in oversized eye sockets under sharply arched eyebrows, ears shaped like a bat, and a bald head crowned with a small, rounded nub from which a few wisps of hair stuck out of it at odd angles. It was rather scary and disgusting at the same time. Chuckles flew around the room.
The Origin of F.O.R.C.E. Page 4
