The air cleared and then there was only Earth hanging in the air, slowly rotating. "The control system and master relay were placed on the third planet." Six small spots glowed on the surface of the globe. Hawkins could immediately place each spot as the continents came into view: Tunguska, Ayers Rock, Ries Basin, Vredefort Dome, Meteor Crater, and Campo del Cielo.
"The Swarm attacked in force through this part of the Coalition approximately one hundred and ninety thousand years ago. The defense system succeeded in its primary task of giving sufficient notice, and Coalition Space Forces responded. A great space battle was fought three hundred parsecs from your solar system and the Swarm was beaten back despite heavy losses to the Coalition. The defense system only partially succeeded in its secondary mission of protecting this solar system."
Half the lights winked off on the globe-Ries Basin, Meteor Crater, and Campo de Cielo. "Three of the relay sites were destroyed by the Swarm. There were near misses at the ones you call Vredefort Dome and Ayers Rock."
The scene expanded again to take in the solar system. Many of the small red dots around the rim of the system disappeared. "Forty-three percent of the deep-space sensors and automated weapons were also destroyed. Despite those losses, though, the system remained functional, as the original had had redundancy built in." There was the briefest of pauses. "With the recent loss of the relay under Vredefort Dome the system is no longer functional to the satisfaction of the Defender."
There was a long pause. Hawkins stared through the display at the three points of light. He glanced down at his hands and could see the wrists where they disappeared into the red glow. He again tried to withdraw his hands and failed. He forced himself to relax and slow his heartbeat.
"The Defender has proposed to Council three options. The first option is to repair the defense system." The lights in the Solar System blinked back on. Then the lights shifted back to the star map. "The second option is to expand our border beyond the vicinity of your planet and build a new defense system here in what you call the Sirius Alpha and Beta system and another here in the Epsilon 2398 Alpha and Beta system to adequately defend the new area." The green sphere crept outward a tiny fraction. ''That would move your solar system from being on the border to being inside our border.
"The third option is to contract our border and build a defense system here in the Barnard's star system." The green sphere edged back a fraction of an inch. The small flashing dot representing Earth stood alone between the red and the green.
Hawkins glanced to his left. Levy was staring at the star map. Beyond her Tuskin turned his head and met Hawkins's eyes. They were both military men and understood immediately what the three proposals represented in strategic terms. The Speaker's next words confirmed what Hawkins had feared.
"The Defender recommends option three."
In the silence following these last words Hawkins could hear the sound of his own heartbeat thudding through his arteries. He was startled when Levy spoke for the first time.
"Why?"
There was no indication that she was heard. The star map disappeared and only the three lights remained. The center one continued to pulse in rhythm to the words spoken.
"I will now speak for the Mediator. All factors have been considered as presented by the Defender. Option one would require the least cost, but is considered too risky because the native life-forms on the third planet have proven themselves a threat to the defense system by having destroyed part of it.
"Option two would require the highest cost, but would only be done if the Council considered the natives of the third planet as potentially worthy of membership in the Coalition. It would require a lengthening of our internal lines of communication, which is not recommended.
"Option three is recommended because it can be immediately implemented and requires no interaction with the natives of the third planet. Additionally, it reduces our internal lines of communications, always a desirable military goal.
"The Mediator's role is to observe and then present to the Council the perspective of all parties involved. The Defender's perspective has been presented. The Mediator has studied the data on your planet. The Mediator has tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are not yet ready for inclusion in the Coalition, nor are they on a developmental path that would lead to it."
In place of the lights was a swift flickering of images, most gleaned from Earth news reports. Despite the rapid shifting of scenes Hawkins recognized all of it-Lebanon, the Gulf War, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, all the hot-spots of the world flashed before his eyes in a distressing series of pictures.
"The Mediator has also tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are responsible for the destruction of the relay site under Vredefort Dome and that there is a statistically significant probability that there may be future damage to the defense system caused by the natives, even if the present damage were to be repaired-especially now that our relay sites at Ayers Rock and Tunguska have been detected and uncovered."
Again the scenes shifted, this time showing pictures of missile silos, submarines, bombers, and other military hardware.
The images disappeared. "The Mediator believes that the natives of the third planet should be given a chance to present their perspective. There is some information we require to clarify the situation. Why are only three of the eight personnel we requested present? You may now speak."
Hawkins blinked and looked at Debra, then down the line at Tuskin. The Russians must have been given a list of four names also. "We did not understand what the message meant," Debra offered.
"You understood enough to uncover our relays at Tunguska and Ayers Rock," the voice replied. "You understood enough to send some personnel across. We examined the man who came through alone-he was injured and disoriented and appeared simply to be fleeing the site where he had been. He was not one of those we requested. We sent him onward to where our scanners indicated he desired to go. Where are the other personnel we requested?"
"Our other two members are waiting for us to report back on what we have discovered," Hawkins said. "We had no idea what would happen when we went through the Wall in your relay site."
"What about your other three, Colonel Tuskin?"
That was the first indication that the voice knew whom it was addressing. That also explained the eight seats lined up. Hawkins wondered what sort of information might be getting drawn from him through whatever had pierced his skin. Was it some sort of lie detector? What had he been injected with?
Tuskin seemed at a loss for words for a few seconds. "My people also did not know what would happen. Your Defender should understand that a reconnaissance is in order before committing oneself to a course of action. As the military man listed, I was sent across first."
"Your distrust and unwillingness to comply with a simple request does not indicate favorably. We selected the two most powerful group entities on your planet to communicate to. Between your two entities you control the vast preponderance of military might-and most of the destructive weapons that pose a threat to our relay sites.
"More important, you are the only two group entities on this planet that have projected personnel into space. That is normally considered one of the first steps in proving eligibility to join the Coalition. We were disappointed to discover that you have managed to do that, yet still remain as a species entity on your planet."
"Did you destroy the Voyager 2 probe?" Hawkins asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the failings of the human race.
"Yes. When it passed out of your star system, it was detected by the sensors and examined. The main computer allowed it to continue until the Vredefort Dome relay was destroyed. At that time automatic defensive measures destroyed it. The initial reaction was that the Vredefort Dome relay had been destroyed by a Swarm attack, and all systems responded accordingly until the data could be examined."
"How could a Swarm attack have made it through your defensive system to attack Earth?" Tu
skin asked.
"The Defender has shown you that the system has been degraded. The Swarm has the capability to make attacks of limited size that might evade the external sensors."
"Has this happened before?" Hawkins wondered why Tuskin seemed so concerned about this.
"Most recently, in the time count you call 1908, a Swarm Splinter ship infiltrated this system. It reached the third planet and launched an attack on the Tunguska relay. We were able to destroy the ship just prior to destruction of the relay. We were not capable of doing that at Vredefort Dome because the attack came from the planet natives and not the Swarm."
"The explosion at Vredefort Dome was not done by either of our governments," Hawkins tried explaining.
"It was done by a native of the third planet."
Hawkins went into detail, talking about the two missing bombs and the fact that he had been part of a team trying to recover them. He felt shackled with the inability to use his hands and by the total lack of response from the three points of light. There was no indication that he was even being heard, until he had finished. The reply was not what he had hoped.
"We are not interested in the factionalism among the natives of the third planet except as they directly affect the Coalition. The destruction of the relay site at Vredefort Dome did so affect us. We wish to avoid such occurrences in the future. For that reason we have shown you the three options we are considering, along with the perspective the Defender and the Mediator have on those options.
"The fact that you have a weapon still missing and uncontrolled that is capable of such power as that which destroyed the Vredefort Dome relay was a very significant factor when we considered your species on the scale for acceptance into the Coalition or even simply protection by the Coalition.
"We carefully selected four personnel from each of your two factions in terms of the skills of those personnel so you could understand the options and the relative merits of those options. We chose one military person to be able to understand the Defender's analysis. We chose a statistician to understand the risk-and-benefit projection of each option. A geologist to be able to help you uncover the relay sites so we might bring you here. And a physicist to understand scientific matters as they might come up to affect your decision."
"Where are we now?" Tuskin asked.
"Our present location is classified," the Speaker replied.
"Are we on Earth?" Tuskin persisted.
"No."
"How did we get here?" Tuskin asked.
"Through what you call the portals or Walls."
"We know that," Tuskin replied. "I want to know how we traveled through space to get here."
"Even if we told you, you would not understand."
Hawkins was frustrated. He had the answers to many of the questions they had been struggling with prior to going through the portal. But those questions were no longer important in the face of what the Speaker had presented. "You have shown us your three options. You have also indicated which option you are inclined to pursue. You say you want our perspective, yet you seem to know all you need to know about humans to make your decision. What true options do we have? What can we do to influence your decision? You must have brought us here for some reason other than simply to explain the situation to us."
"We felt we must apprise you of the situation out of respect for you as sentient beings. The Mediator also desired to hear from you should there be anything that might change the analysis of the situation."
There was a long silence and Hawkins was surprised when Debra was the one to break it. "You said you wanted our perspective, but you ask it only after presenting us with information we were not aware of, and which in itself would change our perspective. Our race is still very young as compared to yours. We need time to develop and we need time to adjust to this new information."
Tuskin stirred. "You chose us, but we are not the ones that make decisions for our species. We can bring your message back to those who do. That may change things on our planet enough so that your first or second option may be feasible. If our governments cooperate, we can make this planet a worthwhile place to defend."
"We will consider this. Wait." The room went totally dark and Hawkins was left with the image of the lights etched on his retinas, slowly fading away.
Hawkins was sweating despite the cool temperature. He directed his question in the general direction of Tuskin. "You were sent four names?"
Tuskin's voice sounded very far away. "Yes. A message to our space lab. Very directional. It came up from Tunguska. That, along with the message out of Ayers Rock, led us to dig. We have long known there was something strange about what happened at Tunguska so many years ago."
"Why didn't your government send the four people named in the message?" Levy asked.
"Why didn't yours?" Tuskin countered. "Why did you infiltrate our country to try and find out what we were doing? We can ask questions all day, but if they come back through that door and say they want nothing more to do with us, everything as we know it may be over!"
"The last time this Swarm attacked Earth was 1908," Hawkins observed. "It may be a long time before they do it again."
"The simple fact that they are out there is enough!" Tuskin spoke harshly. "You know as well as I do that the Coalition's most feasible military option is to pull back and shorten their defensive line."
"I take hope from the fact that they didn't simply do that," Debra said. "That they chose to speak to us is important."
Tuskin seemed not to have heard. "We have been groveling in the dirt fighting each other since the beginning of civilization, yet now suddenly we look up and realize that we have been so infantile!" His voice lashed out at Hawkins. "I kill you because you are American. You kill me because I am Russian. Yet we are all human." Hawkins heard him spit. "Stupidity. It is too late. It is all over."
Hawkins could understand where the other man's anger came from. Tuskin had spent his life dedicated to fighting for a government that had fallen apart at the seams just a few short years before. The carefully cultivated myth of duty, honor, and country in the Russian military had had the rug pulled out from under it. Now what had happened to Tuskin's country was happening to the planet. If a trained military man like Tuskin was affected this way, Hawkins wondered how others would react when they learned what he had just been told in this room.
He was still pondering that when the lights reappeared. "You will have twenty-four hours to return to us with both a proposal and actions completed to indicate that we may consider options other than number three."
"What?" Debra exclaimed. "This system has existed for hundreds of thousands of years and you give us only twenty-four hours to do something? We must have more time."
"The relay sites you came through will return you to where you started. In twenty-four hours the portals will shut down." The lights disappeared. With a rumble the elevator door slid open behind them and the light from it spilled out into the room. Hawkins again felt a flicker of pain on the back of his hand. He pulled and this time his hands came out without any resistance. The arm swung away and he stood and turned for the elevator.
RETURN
Ayers Rock, Australia
22 DECEMBER 1995, 2300 LOCAL
22 DECEMBER 1995, 1330 ZULU
On the surface night had settled in, but it made no difference to Fran down in the chamber. She sat on the rock floor, her eyes staring at the Wall as if simply by looking long enough, she could see through and discover what had happened to Hawkins and Debra.
Tomkins had gone off shift an hour before, replaced by a young lieutenant whose presence was an irritating buzz to Fran as he worked on the remote gear that would be sent through as the next probe. Don Batson had stayed down here, joining her in the watch, his eyes reaching to hers every so often for encouragement in his own personal trial. A few feet away Dr. Pencak sat as still as the floor she was on.
"Debra seemed to know what she was doing." The words came out before Fran even rea
lized what she was saying.
She looked over at Don, who was running his hand along the smooth stone wall, for perhaps the fiftieth time in the past hour, taking comfort from the rock itself, something he understood well. "For all we know she was crazy," he commented. "Maybe she's on her own form of medication," he added wryly, holding out his own hand, which shook slightly. He jerked a thumb up toward the surface. "Lamb's convinced Hawkins and Levy came out in Tunguska and the Russians have them."
"The Russians!" Fran said bitterly. "Always the Russians. Or the Iraqis. Or the Cubans. Or the Libyans. Or whoever our enemy of the week is."
Don shrugged, glad to be thinking about something other than his own problem. "You've been at the Hermes meetings. They spend most of their time trying to worst-case things and looking at everyone as an enemy." He looked at her. "Hell, Fran, that was your job-worst-case things. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that a large spur for us even being at some of those meetings was your analysis of present trends and where they are likely to lead us."
Fran leaned forward. "Those were statistical projections based on what was happening. Those projections will come true if nothing is done to avert the disastrous course we are on."
"Yeah, I know," Don said. "Hell, the last tasking I got from Hermes-along with a hundred-and-sixty-thousand-dollar grant-was to work on finding natural underground shelters that could be developed by the military into bunkers for minimum cost. They even had me do up a study on how Mammoth Caves could be converted by the military in a crisis."
"Bomb shelters!" Fran exploded. "They want to handle the world's problems by building bomb shelters? That kind of thinking belongs back in the fifties."
"Then I guess I belong back there too," Don said quietly.
"Thinking like that is more concerned with surviving than living," Fran continued as if she hadn't heard.
"What's the difference?" Don asked.
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