Vaz 4: Invaders

by Laurence E. Dahners

  After about a hundred microdays’ (11 renda microdays = one Earth second) light-speed delay Levon responded, “What is it now?!”

  “I thought you should be aware of how the aliens responded to our firing the meteorite deflection system at their ship." Because of the light-speed delay, Balan could continue immediately without letting Levon have time to interrupt. “We’re fairly sure we hit them because their long-term deceleration of over five Gs ceased. Their ship began to tumble. Shortly after that though, they recovered, moved away from us, and began accelerating back toward the double planet at accelerations varying between 1.3 and 4 Gs.”

  Levon said derisively, “You think the backward savages on that planet, aliens who can’t even build a space elevator, are capable of accelerating at 5Gs? Continuously?! They can’t possibly carry enough reaction mass! Your officers are a bunch of idiots who can’t even read their own instruments!”

  Flabbergasted, Balan found herself unable to respond for a few moments. In her peripheral vision, Balan saw her officers’ wings lift slightly in fear of Levon’s accusation. She responded tartly and confidently, “My officers have read their instruments correctly. These aliens are much more capable than you believe.”

  Levon didn’t respond. After nearly a milliday, Balan realized that the mission leader had disconnected before she got Balan’s response.

  Balan considered what to do. Her orders hadn’t changed, so all she could do is proceed to land on that damnable alien planet. Hopefully the genegineers could find an exceedingly rapid viral solution to the intelligent life there.

  If it took a while to wipe out the aliens, Balan had a feeling that she and the rest of the lander team wouldn’t survive the encounter…

  ***

  Washington DC — WE’RE AT WAR WITH SPACE ALIENS! Though this may seem like a tabloid headline, an anonymous source at the United States State Department revealed that an alien vessel is approaching the Earth and has fired on Earth’s emissaries! This is apparently the Near Earth Object first reported in May after it rounded the sun. Previous news reports have reported that the object separated into two objects, the smaller of which is expected to either impact the Earth or pass very close to it. GSI, NASA and the State Department apparently sent out a combined mission to evaluate the smaller object, but that mission has been fired upon by the aliens.

  We regret to report to you that a Mr. Kurt Shapiro, the State Department’s representative on the mission was killed by this enemy action. Apparently no one else was injured and the mission is presently returning to Earth.

  So far there have been no responses to queries about why the public is just now learning about this alien ship or what kind of danger these aliens may pose to Earth itself.

  The political firestorm that has erupted in Washington is soon expected to spread to other capitals around the world. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has been called to the White House where it is expected that he will be explaining to President Miles the exact extent of our space-warfare capabilities.

  Reactions to this news have varied. Albert Bonnie, a representative of a think tank dedicated to extraterrestrial resource management has said, “While we regret the events that have occurred, we must point out that it is implausible to conceive that aliens would travel from another star system merely to attack us. Any race advanced enough to mount an interstellar expedition could have no viable reason for beginning a war. It would not be economically feasible to gather resources from us to take back to their home system as the transportation costs would be incalculably high.” Mr. Bonnie goes on to say, “These aliens must be here on a scientific mission and any “incident” must’ve been a result of a misunderstanding, probably from the ill-conceived, headlong rush of our ship towards theirs. We must do a better job of opening communications and…”

  Other reactions have been less sanguine. Theories have ranged from those who believe that Earth has some unusually rare resource that the aliens have come for, to those who imagine that the aliens want to enslave us or breed with us, to those who think the aliens find us unclean and intend to wipe us out.

  There have been demands that the government nationalize GSI’s resources in order to fight the aliens who, as is evident from their ability to travel between the stars, must be much more scientifically advanced than we are.

  At the request of President Miles, Tiona brought the small saucer down at a construction site about a half a mile from the White House. They’d arrived back on Earth at four in the morning so the site was deserted. It was so dark that Tiona suspected that someone must have turned off all the lights in the area to hide their arrival. When she opened the second door of the saucer’s airlock she found a team waiting with a gurney to pick up Shapiro’s body. A second team was waiting with a convoy of vehicles to take her, Stoddard, Klein and Nunez to the White House.

  They were efficiently debriefed and then led in for a breakfast meeting with President Miles and most of her cabinet at 6 o’clock. To Tiona’s relief General Cooper sat in one of the chairs around the large table. President Miles said, “We’ve all seen diagrams of the alien ships’ trajectories, the pictures you’ve sent us of the daughter-ship, a description of the aliens’ attack on your saucer with images of the hole in your flooring and pictures of what happened to poor Mr. Shapiro.” The President’s eyes darted sympathetically to Shapiro’s boss, her Secretary of State who’d had to tell Kurt’s family what had happened. “I’ve asked you here so that I can get your opinions on what the aliens are doing, just how fearsome they are, and how we might and should respond.” Incongruously, the president spooned up some cereal, reminding Tiona that it was, after all, a breakfast meeting. She wondered whether she’d be able to eat anything.

  Though Miles had been looking at Tiona and she’d felt like the president was addressing her, one of the generals at the table began to answer before Tiona even got her thoughts together. “They’ve obviously come to destroy us. After all, their opening form of communication was to take a shot at us. We need to load some nuclear weapons on one of the big saucers, fly them out there and blow those bastards to Hell and gone.”

  Tiona turned to stare at the man, unsure whether she was more appalled by his aggressive rhetoric or by his completely unrealistic expectations of what a nuclear explosion might do in space. She noticed Lieutenant Nunez also favoring the general with wide startled-looking eyes.

  Stoddard, on the other hand, looked pained. Tiona didn’t think he was distressed by the general’s ham-handed approach but thought he might be embarrassed by the man’s lack of knowledge.

  President Miles was also appraising the interrupting general, though her eyes were narrowed. “Okaaay,” she said dragging the word out and tilting her head curiously. She transferred her eyes to Tiona, “Ms. Gettnor, what are you thinking?”

  Tiona took a deep breath, “I’ve been thinking about it during our return trip. I think it’s possible we might have tripped an automatic meteorite defense system, though I have a hard time believing an automatic system fired on an object that wouldn’t have actually been projected to hit them. Therefore it seems more likely that they purposefully fired on us. If they tried to warn us away, we did not detect the message. They didn’t emit any radio signals in our direction in the minutes before the attack though we detected leakage from the antenna they had trained on the mothership. We didn’t perceive any laser emissions, but it’s conceivable that they may have used frequencies that we didn’t have equipment to detect. Unfortunately, we’re unable to tell whether they fired on us more than once. Our evasive maneuvers may have been effective and we would only have been able to tell they fired if they struck us.” She glanced at the general, then back at the President, “I must point out that the general’s plan to attack them with nuclear weapons may be unrealistic. If they routinely fire on objects that are approaching their vicinity, it seems like their beam weapon is likely to render an atomic device inoperative.”

  The general snorted, “We don’t ha
ve to get close to them with an H-bomb!”

  Tiona frowned, “On the contrary, you do. Nuclear weapons do not produce much in the way of blast or thermal effects when detonated in outer space because of the lack of atmosphere to be heated into a plasma and produce those results. They do produce a large EMP and significant ionizing radiation, but I must point out that this ship recently passed very close to the sun. It must be well shielded against such effects.”

  The general favored Tiona with an angry glare and she didn’t think she’d made a friend. Tiona got the impression that President Miles wanted to squint and rub her temples. Instead she turned to Dr. Klein, “You’re the astrophysicist, what do you think?”

  Kline looked startled. He shrugged, “Not my area of expertise. I investigate methods for interstellar travel. I was only along to get a look at their star drive.”

  The president grimaced and Tiona had the impression she’d expected a little more help from her NASA representative. Even if the guy had special expertise in one area, he did have a degree in astrophysics and more expertise in that field than the other people around the table. The president merely said, “So, how do you think they got here?”

  Klein shook his head, looking disappointed, “We didn’t get close enough to even make a guess.”

  Tiona lifted her hand momentarily for attention, thinking that with all the egos in the room, the gesture would be ignored. In fact, several people began speaking at the same time, but the President’s eyes focused on Tiona, “Yes, Ms. Gettnor?”

  “My dad has a theory… that it’s possible to open a wormhole deep in a gravitational well. He says the aliens didn’t enter the solar system unnoticed, but came through a wormhole on the other side of the sun, deep in its gravitational well.”

  Dr. Klein was already shaking his head with an expression of distaste. “That’s just not possible…”

  The president held up a halting hand and turned her eyes toward Dr. Klein, “I don’t believe that anyone thought fusors or thrusters were possible either… before Ms. Gettnor and her father actually built them, correct?”

  “Um…” Klein said. He halted, Tiona suspected because he hadn’t really considered who she and her father were before the question was posed.

  President Miles turned her eyes back to Tiona, “I’d like to hear the rest of what you have to say.”

  “Um, that’s it. I’m not exactly sure how it applies except that, if true, it would mean that the aliens hadn’t traveled for decades or even centuries at sub light speeds to get here. With a wormhole, perhaps transportation costs to their home system are low enough to make it worthwhile to collect resources here.” She shrugged, “It might also mean that they could get reinforcements relatively quickly, something we should be taking into consideration.”

  The president tilted her head curiously, “Does your father just have a theory, or do we know that this wormhole thing actually works?”

  “Well, he says he built a working model of a port and created a wormhole from here to Venus… but I haven’t actually seen it myself to confirm that it works.” She shrugged, “But if he says it works, I’m pretty sure it does.”

  The President’s eyes went momentarily to General Cooper who nodded at her. She turned back to Tiona, “My advisers tell me that I should believe the things your father says.” She snorted, “And also, that it’s unlikely I can get him to come to the White House to provide advice on how to deal with these aliens.” She tilted her head to look at Tiona curiously, “That being the case, do you think I’d be able to visit him?”

  “You could… but… it might not be very productive. It might work better if you used me as an intermediary?”

  “Okay,” the president said, her eyes on General Cooper, “I’d like General Cooper to go with you and I’d like to listen in on the conversation through your AI… perhaps feeding you some questions. Do you think that’d be okay?”

  “He gets nervous around new people, but he has met the General a few years ago. Is it okay if I ask him?”

  “Sure. If that doesn’t work, the general can listen in on the conversation with me.”

  The meeting went on for another hour with the President’s advisers suggesting everything from negotiation, to immediate capitulation, to first-strike warfare. Tiona didn’t find any of the arguments very persuasive and kept thinking that the first two required an ability to communicate—something that no one seemed to be worried about. She wondered whether her dad had had any luck decoding the aliens’ communications.

  As the meeting broke up, General Cooper came around to her side of the room and quietly said, “When do you think is the soonest we could meet with your father?”

  “I don’t know, let me check.” She asked her AI to connect her to Vaz, “Dad? Would it be okay if I came by today to talk to you about the aliens?”

  “Okay,” Vaz said. As usual his tone was flat, but after years of experience Tiona felt like he seemed a little bit excited to see her.

  Tiona gave it a moment’s thought. She’d have to get back to the saucer, then fly it to Raleigh. “I’ll be there in a couple of hours. Is it okay if I bring General Cooper? You met him a few years ago at our house in Raleigh when we talked about possible weaponization of the thrusters. He might want to ask a couple of questions about the aliens too, okay?

  “Okay,” Vaz said in almost the same flat tone, but this time Tiona could tell he was reluctant, though accepting. Tiona turned to Cooper, “We’re on, but I can tell he doesn’t really like it. The more you fade into the woodwork, the better my conversation with him will probably go.”

  “Do you think I should just listen in over the AI?”

  “No… I think communication will be a lot better in person, I just urge you to low-key your questions. Do you think you can get us a ride back to the saucer?”

  ***

  Wonderingly, Cooper followed Tiona down the stairs into the basement under the barn at Gettnors’ place. The barn was hardly a farm building and the equipment inside of it was highly organized and quite esoteric. Just the fact that they’d flown the saucer in through the big doors of the barn and landed it in a spot apparently set aside for it seemed unusual enough.

  Tiona opened the door at the bottom of the stairs and they stepped into an enormous, high-ceilinged, well-lit, painstakingly-organized… “physics lab” Cooper decided was the best term for it, though semi-industrial workshop could have applied as well. Cooper carefully followed behind Tiona, not exactly hiding, just not making his presence an obtrusive thing. Dr. Gettnor, wearing the same ill-fitting baggy clothes Cooper remembered, stood and turned away from a series of big screens on the wall covered with what Cooper thought were programming blocks.

  Cooper would have described Gettnor smile at seeing his daughter as “shy.” There followed a brief hug between the two, loving on Tiona’s part and almost painfully clumsy on the part of her father. Tiona turned and indicated Cooper, “Dad, you remember General Cooper? He came to see us shortly after we first got the thrusters working.”

  Gettnor looked in Cooper’s direction though his eyes didn’t rise high enough to meet Cooper’s. He nodded and said, “Hello.”

  As Tiona had suggested, Cooper didn’t try to extend his hand for a shake. He merely said, “Hello,” himself, then actually stepped backward to make himself less conspicuous.

  Gettnor started across the room, Cooper would have said somewhat eagerly, saying, “I’ve finished the wheelchair. Do you think you could take it to that boy?”

  Tiona gave Cooper an amused look and a little shake of the head. She followed her father over to a legless chair that was reclining on the floor. It did look something like a wheelchair, if the wheelchair had had its wheels removed. Dr. Gettnor spoke a few words to his AI and the chair suddenly lifted into the air. Now it looked even more like a wheel-less wheelchair. Tiona’s dad sat down in it, lifted his feet into the foot rests and pushed forward on a little joyball. The chair scooted across the room, then ascended to sl
ide effortlessly over a big work-table and descend on the other side. Gettnor turned the chair and came back toward them. “Any suggestions?”

  Tiona said, “No Dad, it looks awesome. I’ll be happy to take it to him, but I think it’s really important that we talk about the aliens first, okay?”

  “Sure…” Gettnor looked a little puzzled, but then brightened, “The encoding on their communications was fascinating.”

  Cooper felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck, but Tiona merely said, “You were able to figure it out?”

  Gettnor lifted his shoulders a little and what Cooper thought was a conscious effort to form a shrug. “Yeah, but it took several days!” Cooper got the impression that Gettnor was astonished to have had to spend several days puzzling out a completely alien form of communication. Gettnor continued, “Fortunately, the computers on the mothership are in almost constant communication with the daughter-ship. The daughter-ship returns communications constantly as well, though we’re presumably only getting some backside leakage from some kind of parabolic antenna. The signal’s weak and fades out completely a lot of the time.” He glanced to the side, “We’re pretty lucky that they’re lined up almost coaxially with us and that the daughter-ship’s antenna leaks.” He’d gotten out of the wheel-less chair and—apparently controlled by his AI— the chair had returned to its original location. Dr. Gettnor started back across the room to his screens, his eyes already back up on the screens’ cryptic contents.

  Apparently realizing that her dad wasn’t spontaneously going to tell them any more about whatever he’d discovered regarding the aliens’ communications, Tiona said, “So what did you learn about their communication system?”

  “Oh,” Gettnor said, sounding a little interested, “they use trinary, rather than binary. From the signals they’re sending I don’t think their computers have a great deal of processing power. That might be because microchips with fine architecture are so much more susceptible to radiation effects” He glanced at his daughter as if to check whether she understood, even though his glance didn’t rise to her eyes. “They passed near the sun on their way here they’d need their chips to be pretty radiation resistant.”