Alien Backlash

by Maxine Millar

  Kasjeindid continued, “All the satellites are ours for now and we will detect any launch from the Keulfyd fleet. Even if they had tiny satellites we would detect the signals. We will notify you if any get through. We should be able to dispose of them as they launch.”

  Sarah wondered if that was correct. If they would be able to detect them all. The Ridianit had had something Mahmoud had called “Life Shields” and that had shocked the Loridsyl. She suspected the Keulfyd would have a few surprises as well. She well remembered Mathew’s often repeated statement “No military plan survives the onset of war unmodified.” She thought of all the plans they had discarded and the changes they had made. Mathew had said only flexibility could win, that you not only had to dump plans, you had to do it fast and without a backward glance. And you needed multiple backup plans. He said it had been the secrecy that had meant so little change had had to be made. Secrecy and good Intel. The best way to wage a war was in secrecy.

  “We have spoken to Sarah as to what our role should be,” said Pickdaa, “and she says search and rescue of those crashing into or escaping into the sea. We will analyse any attack pattern we see and communicate this back. We assume they will use a cyber war or jammers?”

  “That is normal military procedure and their jammers are very good. How do you propose to deal with that?” Kasjeindid asked, intrigued. How could fish use communication equipment? How did Pickdaa know about cyber wars?

  Sarah answered, “In the last war, the Priskya had a ring of their people surrounding the planet, passing messages around. There were billions of them involved at times, although all were involved only when necessary. They were the communication network because Torroxell’s main communication system was via satellites and they were all shot down at the start of the war. I don’t know if they deployed a cyber war. We didn’t know what was happening until the gas hit.” She stopped. “No, that’s not right. There were communications difficulties of some kind. Helkmid, you told me that.”

  “Yes, there were multiple problems but I don’t think it needed to be a cyber war because they destroyed the hardware.”

  “Who co-ordinated all the communication?” asked Kasjeindid.

  “Mathew,” said Sarah.

  “So, that was the contribution of the Priskya?” asked the Loridsyl, aghast at the effectiveness of this low-tech achievement of a ring of people around the planet.

  “Not the major one,” answered Sarah, being deliberately evasive.

  Kasjeindid was a mixture of flabbergasted, fascinated and amused. “So how are you going to communicate this time? You need to communicate with ships, ground forces, a central control, and now the fish. And how will you cope with the cyber war which will interfere with every computer-driven system used in space and on the planet? Including weapons!”

  “We have a way to do that using different technology that we think they cannot block. We have to keep this secret. The people with that technology are heading for the Niseyen ships now,” she said, omitting to mention that it had been a frantic night getting volunteers and getting them ready to go at a few minutes’ notice. She had quailed at the numbers of children going onto warships but there had been no time! No time to find adults, no time to find others who were telepathic, and she had to get them paired and off the planet before it was too late. “The observer ships are up there too and we will practice with the main control room and our General.”

  That was interesting, Kasjeindid thought. Terran technology it assumed. “So we are co-ordinating this and the war — or is someone else?”

  “The war will be a joint effort, with you included. We will handle this battle as we need to test everything,” Sarah said, not saying that they were frantically organizing everything right now, including the fake technology for the ships and control room. “For the main war, we will take care of communication and bypass the cyber war and get the information to a single point where this Niseyen military man will co-ordinate overall. I’m not sure what his rank is but Dai is sure he can do the job. We would call him a General. If our communication system is disrupted, the Priskya will take over the way they did before for the planet-wide communications. We will be in trouble if planet-to-ship communication is disrupted, but we think this is unlikely. We will allow for it but that would severely hamper us,” she said in a colossal understatement.

  Kasjeindid left, thoughtfully revising its opinion of the potential of other uses for fish apart from the dinner plate. But it was stunned as it went back to let its people know the outcome of this war planning. It spoke to its friend the Controller who stealthily turned the communications channel open so the rest of its people would get the information too. “These five very different creatures have made a decision at the speed of one person. Faster, even. I had wondered how long it would be before they either came apart and I had to offer to take over, or one or more gave a proxy. The Okme gave his proxy to the Niseyen. A proxy at the first decision is good. I then assumed the fish would follow and the Cats until the logical choice to hold all proxies was the Niseyen man, who is military.”

  “But that didn’t happen?” asked the Controller.

  “No. The Terrans, Niseyen, and Cats opted for Plan C. Sarah decided first in a split second. I couldn’t believe it! You were right. They are Alphas and aggressive, yet smarter than the Nashi and sneakier than the Ridianit.”

  “How are they going to get the resupply ships?”

  “They say Niseyen military, with help from others.”

  “I think I know what the Cats are doing. We’ve seen simulators go into the forest and then disappear underground. We’ve seen them practice flying at night too. I wonder what else they are capable of, what technology they have — and where the hell they came from! Are the Cats indigenous to this planet or from another and, if so, where? Two Races we don’t know. This is fascinating! I’m so pleased I came.”

  “We are going to have to rethink this one! The advertising manager did later improve on its plan from Plan A, Surrender, to Plan B, Ludicrous, to Plan C, Blithering Idiots. With associated increasing gain for us. Not to mention increasing chance of our own personal survival. The first step of the second two Plans was to refuse to surrender, and they started the meeting with that as a given! They are now considering the third plan and have their majority as the Terrans, Niseyen, and Cats are all for it. They are working on persuading the Okme. Even though that Okme has given his proxy, it seems they still want his agreement. The Priskya agreed. That was a shock.”

  “But they have communication sorted, do they? We will have to ensure we get that! A communication system unknown to the Keulfyd! That will be worth multi-billions! The more risk these idiots take, the higher the risk for a few but the better the chance of the survival of the majority — and these idiots have clearly and instantly seen that!”

  “That Sarah said getting people to fight will not be a problem. Stopping them will be the problem. These idiots are at the extreme range of Blithering Idiots.”

  “This is going to be fun, and very profitable whether or not we win,” said the Controller. “I’ve a good feeling about this. We are in with a good chance and the Blithering Idiots will be taking all the personal risk while we will be advertising for all we are worth. A shield test against the Keulfyd! A planetary war against a Loridsyl shield is now so costly for both sides that it has not happened since the Keulfyd attacked the Ridianit, before I was born. And won, defeating us.”

  Kasjeindid glared at its friend. Would it ever take life seriously? It sounded like a child at a party. “This is war! They are going to fight. We could be killed!”

  “So what? If we are dead, we are dead. Big deal. The exciting bit is that this time our instructions are clear. Win. And think of the success bonus! Whatever else, our Race should recoup our losses on the Torroxell shield before this is over and we will all be rich! Whatever we do we are covered. Sarah has also accepted our private deal and paid in advance. The advertising manager’s plan has been accepted in
full. These Terrans are on our wavelength. This Sarah appears to know all about ‘going for broke.’ What are you worrying about? Plan C means we personally incur the lowest risk. We will sit safe behind the contracted Shield.”

  “But if this is over before it starts? If they don’t get those resupply ships? It is accepted that we can surrender but the Keulfyd have a poor attitude towards those they consider military surrendering. That’s us! They think it shows a lack of commitment, a weakness, cowardice even. People have surrendered and had accidents. The Keulfyd mainly accept civilians surrendering but are only really lenient towards children. They will not be lenient towards Sarah. I wasn’t going to tell her she was going to make a giant target of herself. Dai will know. So will Helkmid. She acts like they haven’t warned her,” it said thoughtfully.

  The Controller enthused: “The preparation has been a surprise, just how prepared they were and how much thought has been put into this. Even the Okme partly bankrolled by the Priskya — that was a double surprise. The Terran children were yet another unexpected bonus and the Niseyen children are rapidly catching up. The speed of the reflexes of the Terran children, their willingness to train by the hour, the sheer joy they take in it and in the competitions Mahmoud and Sarah organized to keep them training and enthusiastic. Do you remember the end of the first competition? The children the winners, to the shock of the Niseyen adults at being outgunned. That was orchestrated by Sarah, I’ll bet. She had correctly anticipated the spur that would be for the adults to be resoundingly beaten by children!”

  Kasjeindid stared at the Controller, wishing it could be so calm.

  “But I am puzzled as to why the Priskya were included in the original Treaty,” the Controller continued. “No one has answered that. But never mind. This is going to go well, I feel it. The Priskya have bought the shield and bankrolled many of the military supplies that have arrived, illegally on passenger ships. There is no question of their inclusion in the Treaty this time but why were they included last time? Do the Priskya have some sort of weapon, something hitherto unknown? If so, how can it reach into space?”

  “No. Sarah said the Priskya handled the communication network last war. Astoundingly low tech. Billions of them ringing the planet and passing messages on.”

  “But that would be too slow. She lied to you.”

  “I don’t think she did. Somehow they have to have communicated, and she was adamant the Priskya did that role. It must have involved technology. A message could not be sent person to person at the speed required for effective wartime communication. She also said that wasn’t their main contribution. So what else is secret? We must find out. I think the Priskya have some hidden technology, totally unknown, and the Terrans do too. Somehow, these different methods of communication can work together. We must get these.”

  The Controller said softly, “Two unknown and superior methods of communication! And they interface not only with each other but also with the Niseyen and Okme systems. All must be able to communicate with each other. This is fascinating. We will come out of this rich beyond our wildest dreams. We get a percentage of the value of new technology. Think about it!”

  Listening to its friend, Kasjeindid slowly calmed down but only a little. If only it could be more like its friend, who took every mission like this it could and always expected to survive.

  “The recent Torroxell war was somewhat private. This one, is going to be maximum publicity! With a hidden double shield we will win financially even if the Keulfyd eventually win militarily. Calm down. Remember we can surrender at the last minute and survive per the Rules of War. Sarah doesn’t know, and I assume you didn’t tell her?”

  “Of course not! I want to live but my spouses and children will be set up for life regardless.”

  “So all will be OK. And all my debts are already paid. It isn’t just Sarah who can be a risk-taker and I have taken responsibility for my debts in the time-honoured Loridsyl manner.”

  Kasjeindid couldn’t understand why people gambled or got into debt. It was here because it wanted enough money to retire in comfort and never have to work again. It had not anticipated earning it all in one job! But debt and gambling were two of the reasons why there were never a shortage of volunteers for these risky installations. And one who would gamble money was generally prepared to gamble life to win all back and more. Like its young friend here, who would be broke again within a year. Maybe not. Rich beyond our wildest dreams. Is this possible?

  But Kasjeindid was still worried. “The huge unknown here is how much reserve capacity the Keulfyd have. And what else they have that is new. That Life Shield was a shock! Is it Keulfyd technology? I doubt it was Ridianit but it could have been. I don’t like technology I don’t know about!”

  “Oh, stop panicking,” said the Controller. “This planet is fascinating and a huge learning experience. I assumed the Terrans would do this communicating with different or parallel technology. Their computer language will be different to all the ones in this galaxy but they surely don’t have enough of their own computers for all the technology here, and it would take years to make it compatible. Surely they are using local technology, probably Ridianit. If they have learnt to use it this fast and in Universal, I am impressed.

  “But I remain very puzzled about the Cats. How do those Terran youngsters understand their weird speech? Sarah said the Cats’ communication was body language as much as speech, and this was why their language wasn’t in the Translators. Plus that kept it secret. She said the Terran speech contains a lot of body language too, so the concept is familiar to the Terrans. But written language has taught Terrans to compensate so they can manage without visual language. Fascinating! There is so much we don’t know. This is fun.”

  “No it isn’t! If they don’t get those resupply ships this is over before it starts.”

  “Oh, relax. They might get within the range of our shield. There’s more than one way to win this.” Figuring the public part of this was over the Controller quietly turned off the communication channel. The crew knew to stay absolutely silent while it was on, as this was the only way they could get information except via the Controller, who only remembered what was pertinent to it. Kasjeindid was incapable of talking to more than a couple of people at a time and could not use a public address system. It got speech lock. And it could generally only talk in depth to the Controller, who got paid each time this happened by every person on board.

  The two talked on, one optimist and one pessimist as the rest of the Loridsyl muttered among themselves.

  Back at the meeting where everyone was getting ready to leave, Helkmid queried, “You have a way to counter the cyber war?”

  “Not counter it exactly but bypass it,” said Sarah. “We had a partial system worked out but with the decision made by Chris yesterday, and a suggestion by one of our ingenious kids, we greatly expanded it and it was all set in place last night which is why I am so exhausted. Chris, myself, and Dai, among others, were up all night.” She briefly explained what they had done, watching the delight and astonishment on their faces.

  Dai closed the door and motioned for everyone to sit back down. “The main problem is, what do we say about the diseases? What do we say about the virus?”

  “I will tell them I—” started Helkmid.

  “No you won’t,” said Sarah. “We all agreed to your choice of weapon. We all share the burden. We are all implicated.”

  Ilse said, “Chris is saying if the Cats had joined in to fight—”

  Sarah shook her head. “I disagree. If the Keulfyd had known they were under attack, they would simply have blasted the retaliating city. Once they knew what was attacking them, what you were and what you scanned as, they would have annihilated all your people. They didn’t see you as a threat because they didn’t know you were sentient and so did not have your profile in the scanners. That saved you. They didn’t look for anything other than what they thought was here. We got them from within. We won because they didn
’t know they were under attack until it was too late, and they didn’t know where the attack was coming from or from who. Plus at the end they couldn’t risk wiping out whoever had the cure.

  “Mathew was an expert. He was very sure of his tactics: open warfare would have been suicidal. Equipped as you were, you could not have won. Forget your numbers — you had no technology, no weapons. Look at the weapons on those ships. The planes were armed too, and the satellites. That’s thousands of satellites and hundreds of planes, about five hundred according to Az and Kaz on each Flying Fortress. The firepower on those Flying Fortresses is immense. They can flatten whole cities. You were totally outgunned. Az and Kaz said each Flying Fortress could probably have wiped out ten cities, maybe more.”

  Chris looked at Ilse who told Sarah, “She thinks you are right. She hadn’t thought about it like that and she didn’t factor in the satellites. She didn’t know there were that many. Where are they? Can they be reprogrammed?”

  Again, Sarah was intrigued at the technical knowledge of the Cats revealed in astonishingly well-informed questions like these. She answered, “The Keulfyd loaded them back in again so yes we have them, now in warehouses. We can’t use them because they would leave the Keulfyd alone and shoot us down. Not helpful. Dai says they can be reused but they need to be reprogrammed and we first have to figure out how. We have sent some back to Terra and also some of the clean up satellites. The latter will be very useful for Terra. But there’s no time to fix them now. Next war. Nice of them to leave us all this useful equipment though. Dai says we can use the clean-up satellites to clean up the current mess that’s going to be up there after this war as their programming was much simpler because they are not offensive weapons.”

  But Dai’s mind was on a different problem. “What are we going to say about the virus and the other diseases?”