The fiscal conservatives on the other hand were the usual shortsighted human types. Somehow there were still people who cared more about their balance sheets than their survival. Either that or the enormity of the treat to human survival had not sunk in amongst them.
Some of them were called ‘Threat deniers’, who denied that the Shaitans were a significant threat at all. They were reminiscent of the ‘climate deniers’ who kept denying that global warming was a real issue even after the island nation of Maldives went under the water. The extreme conspiracy theorists even thought that this was some kind of global conspiracy hatched by the UN and the Chinese in connivance with people in the US government. There were no aliens in the universe at all according to them.
USC budget problems was because USC had become a victim of its own success. The coordinated international efforts in space, both during the first incursion of the Shaitan scout and especially on Titan had ensured that Earth had never been threatened or suffered any damage. This gave the people of Earth a false sense of security.
Daniel entered the USC administrative headquarters building in Bronx with a measure of nervousness and trepidation. This was going to be the toughest fight of his life. He had Senators and ex-Senators, Generals, Admirals and Physicists along with him, along with a host of staff. Their opponent was an indifferent and slothful bureaucracy.
The USC budget appropriations committee meeting was usually a dull and drab affair. Not this time. It was being attended by the national representatives of the committee, as well as the joint chairs of the governing council. This was going to be a lively presentation, and there were sure to be fireworks.
After the usual greetings and formal opening of the session, Daniel started his opening statement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to first open with a short briefing of the current military situation and our analysis of how it is likely to pan out. I would then invite any of the distinguished members of the committee to ask me for any clarifications on the military situation.
After that I would lay out the special budgetary request and the justification for the same. I would be glad to answer any budget related questions after that second part of my presentation. If this format is acceptable then I will proceed.” Daniel looked around, and the chair of the committee nodded for him to proceed.
“As you may be aware, we had detected the drive signature of one Shaitan ship coming from the direction of planet Shaitan. The configuration of the ship matched exactly with that of the Shaitan ship from the previous incursion 16 years ago that we fought over Titan. If you recollect the briefing I gave last month on the arrival of that news, you would remember that USC was fairly confident of repulsing the threat of this lone Shaitan ship.
Over the intervening years since the last invasion, we have improved our space ships and their weaponry. USC is fairly capable of handling this one ship with the fleet that it has right now. We have been expecting the arrival of Shaitans for over one and a half years now.
From the analysis of the engine thrust of the Shaitan ship, we can confirm that it is travelling no slower than the previous ship. That means that the Shaitans waited for one and a half years for something before they launched this attack campaign. We wondered about it, but did not think too much about it.
Events however have unfolded in the last two days, which has given us the answer to that question, and also necessitated the convening of this emergency briefing.
Two days ago our observation posts detected the drive signatures of three more ships coming from the same direction of planet Shaitan. The drive signature of these three Shaitan ships was subtly different from the first one, although they belong to the same technology tree. The ships have travelled faster and for lesser time, and yet they could afford to start their deceleration thrust a bit later because of their more powerful engines.
Almost within an hour we were shocked to be notified that the drive signature of three more ships of the faster variety had been noticed, but from almost the opposite side. The astronomers scrambled to find the origin planet in the direction from where these new ships had appeared. Before they could find the planet, to their shock they realized there was a fourth ship that was coming from the same direction which we had failed to detect for all these years.
This fourth ships is not one of the faster variety of ships, but seems to be like the first ship that we detected over a month ago and the Shaitan ship we fought over Titan. It has been burning its engines pointed towards us for a long time now. The reason we did not detect it earlier was that it has been burning its engines very slowly, decelerating at a very gentle pace. The engine flare of this ship is extremely faint which we failed to notice.
It was only when we inspected that sector of the space with a fine toothed comb to locate the planet of origin did we notice this ship. We suspect that this ship was originally intended as a support or a follow on to the original ship that we fought over Titan. When that first ship was defeated, we think that this ship was slowed down to arrive along with the second invasion force that we are seeing now.
What has really thrown our calculations and military preparations out of gear is not the number of enemy ships, which stands at 8. That number was part of our worst case scenario. It is the direction rather the directions…” Daniel emphasized the plural to let them know that the enemy was coming from two different direction “that the enemy is coming from that presents both a problem as well as an opportunity.” Daniel paused for effect before continuing.
“There are eight enemy ships coming from two directions in two fleet formations, four ships in each fleet. One is coming from the known direction of the planet Shaitan as was expected. The other direction has resulted in an amazing discovery which is causing a stir not just in military but civilian circles as well, which I am sure the distinguished members of this committee are aware of.
In the past two days astronomers have confirmed the existence of a gas giant planet, tentatively labelled Beta Shaitan in the new direction from where the second fleet is arriving. Beta Shaitan is typical in its characteristics as that of a gas giant, although different in specifics from the original planet Shaitan, which I will refer as Alpha Shaitan to avoid confusion.
From what we know till now, Beta Shaitan is actually slightly more massive than Alpha Shaitan by a few percentage points. The astrophysicists posit that at least one moon habitable to the Shaitans must exist orbiting Beta Shaitan, just as in the case of Alpha Shaitan. Beyond that we know very little about Beta Shaitan, just as we know so little about Alpha Shaitan itself which was discovered over four decades ago.
What we do know now, is that we have to at least double the industrial and military capability of the Shaitan civilization. It is now eminently possible that there are more Shaitan worlds, which might pose future threats to Earth’s survival.
For reasons I will elaborate later, we are terming the slower ships as Shaitan troop carriers. The two ships have accordingly been assigned tags TC – 1 for the one approaching from Alpha Shaitan, and TC – 2 for the one approaching from Beta Shaitan.
The other six ships have hitherto unseen drive characteristics. All six of the ships have the same drive signature, but they are distinct from both the Shaitan troop carriers or the first Shaitan scout ship observed. These ships for reasons that I will again elaborate later have been designated as Shaitan warships. The warships have been designated Tango – 1 through Tango – 6. The ones approaching from the direction of Alpha Shaitan are numbered 1 through 3.
Now ladies and gentlemen of the committee, I would like to draw your attention to Table 1 of my exhibit. Here is what the astrophysicists have been able to piece together till now from the data we have.” Daniel tapped on his scroll and the large displays in the room lit up with Table 1, while simultaneously dimming the lights. Daniel put his finger on the appropriate row on his scroll and the row got highlighted on the displays.
“As you would notice from the table, the new class of Shaitan warship
s are considerably faster than the troop carriers we have seen before. In fact the calculations of their current speed and rate of deceleration show that the Shaitan warships can make it to Earth from Alpha Shaitan in just over 16 years.
In fact the warships from Alpha Shaitan are braking at full deceleration, which means that they will arrive here after travelling for only 16 and a half years. The troop carrier from Alpha Shaitan on the other hand started earlier and will make the journey in the standard time of just over 20 years. All four of them from Alpha Shaitan will arrive together at the same time in our solar system.
It still does not answer the question why they will take 21 and a half years to reach Earth. If the troop carrier was the constraint, then they should have been here in 20 years. For the answer to that we have to look towards the opposite end at Beta Shaitan. As mentioned earlier, there are four Shaitan ships coming from that end as well, one troop carrier and three warships.”
Daniel had his scroll spread out on the table and he flicked it to life to refer the exact figures. “We know the current distance of Beta Shaitan. Beta Shaitan is 0.338 Light years, or 21,375 AU, or about 3.2 trillion kilometers away. This is about one and a half times the distance from Alpha Shaitan.
The mechanics of space travel is such that it doesn’t take one and a half times the amount of time to travel to Earth though. A large part of a spaceships’ travel time goes into the acceleration phase to reach the maximum speed and in the deceleration phase to come to a stop. This time remains constant irrespective of the distance. The time taken to travel does not increase in proportion to the distance, it increases at a lesser rate.
A Shaitan troop carrier from Beta Shaitan can reach Earth in just over 26 years, while a Shaitan warship can make the journey in 21 and a half years. That travel time of the Shaitan warship is significant and I will come back to it later, but first it would be interesting for the committee to know that the troop carrier TC – 2 is travelling at such a speed, that at its current rate of constant deceleration, it will make the journey in 31 years, despite being able to make it in a much shorter period of time of 26 years.
This puzzled us, and the astrophysicists did a back calculation from the current burn rate of TC – 2’s engines to determine, when it would have switched on its engines assuming it has maintained a constant rate of deceleration. The figure astounded us. When TC -2 reaches Earth, it would have been decelerating for just over 21 years!
TC – 2 had been travelling towards Earth even as the earlier incursion at Titan by the previous Shaitan vessel over 21 years ago was taking place. We believe its original mission was to bring additional troops or perhaps colonizers into the solar system. TC – 2 had assumed that the original invasion over two decades ago would be successful.
We believe, when that original invasion failed, the Shaitans came up with a larger invasion force that we see now. TC – 2 was then given orders to synchronize its arrival into the solar system with this new invasion force. Since TC – 2 was travelling at its maximum speed at that time, it immediately started a very mild slowdown burn. The slowdown would be extremely gradual enabling it to arrive at the same time.
Consequently the ion plasma engine burn was very mild and the light extremely faint. That was the reason we had such a hard time locating it this time. That is also the reason, we missed observing the engine burn for so many years.
If TC – 2 is slowly creeping in towards Earth, the warships from Beta Shaitan are burning their engines at full throttle to make it here at the same time. At full burn, the warships from Beta Shaitan take 21 and a half years to reach Earth, and that is why that time interval becomes significant. The Shaitans will arrive in exactly 21 and a half years after the defeat of their first invasion.
The chronology of events, as we believe happened from the Shaitan perspective is as follows. The first Shaitan troop carrier was dispatched from the location closest to Earth. It probably consisted mostly of an advance vanguard consisting mostly of soldiers and engineers to conquer the solar system and make suitable habitats for further colonization.
A follow up ship was dispatched to bring additional colonizers to bolster the initial numbers from Beta Shaitan. With the unexpected defeat of the first troop carrier, the Shaitans reassessed and redrew their battle plans. They ordered TC – 2 to go slow and sync with the next invasion wave.
This time they planned to send specialized warships along with one more troop carrier, in addition to TC – 2 already on its way. In order to synchronize the arrival of all the Shaitan ships, the warships from Beta Shaitan started immediately at the fastest speed they could garner. The troop carrier from Alpha Shaitan left next after a year and a half, followed last by the three warships from Alpha Shaitan after another three and a half years later.
That way all the ships except TC – 2 would be going at their fastest clip, spending the least amount of time in space, and yet arriving together in the solar system.
It is too early to pin down the trajectory of the Shaitan fleets, but we have enough data to indicate a curious direction towards which they are heading. If the Shaitan fleet had been heading towards any particular inner planet, or the Sun, or even Jupiter, we would not have been able to distinguish its trajectory, since these bodies are relatively close in space terms.
However the two fleets seem to be heading for a point so far, that we can distinguish with some level of certainty. The two fleets are heading towards a point beyond the orbit of Pluto. If you imagine the solar system as a circle, then the two fleets are approaching the solar system tangentially, such that their line of approach would just touch the circumference of the circle at a tangent.
We believe that the point where the tangent meets the circle is the rendezvous point of the Shaitans, where the two fleet will meet up and join forces before they proceed on their attack plan. It makes perfect military sense. A fleet twice the size is usually more than twice as effective both in defense as well as offense.
Last I would address the question I left for later, as to why we think one is a troop carrier while the other a warship. Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, it all boils down to the characteristics of the ships we are able to observe.
The troop carriers are large and massive, but slow. We have seen from our previous engagement, that the troop carriers were just about fair in offence and defense. Even our primitive ships could bring it down, with some skill and luck. It is hardly the kind of warship you would expect from such an advanced and war like species.
For example it made no sense for the ship over Titan to have only 4 missile launch tubes, when the ship was so big that it could have had ten times as many. It would have had no issues storing those missiles either due to their size.
The new ships we observe on the other hand are slightly smaller in volume but just as massive. Some of the mass is probably the extra hydrogen fuel it is carrying, but overall it means it is denser and better armored. The engines are faster and it carries extra fuel to run harder. These are typical characteristics of a warship.
Even if we think logically, when a particular class of ship has been defeated. Any intelligent enemy, and Shaitans are intelligent beyond doubt, would send more war capable ships, rather than less capable ones.
To summarize ladies and gentlemen, we have 8 Shaitan ships heading towards Earth, two troop carriers of known capabilities, and 6 assumed warships with assumed superior capabilities. They are heading to a rendezvous point just beyond the orbit of Pluto, and on joining together this combined fleet is expected to proceed towards Earth in about 5 years.
With that ladies and gentlemen of the committee, I come to the end of this segment of my presentation. I would be glad to take any questions that you may have.” Daniel finished and went for the glass of water kept in front of him. The committee had been given the documents in advance and there was not much that Daniel could throw light on, which their scientific advisors couldn’t. So there were very few questions.
Daniel then started
the part of the presentation which he knew would be the cause of the real fireworks within the committee – budget, budget appropriations and resource allocation. This was the area of expertise of politicians and bureaucrats. They thrived on those discussions just as military men hated them.
“I will straight away get to the brass tacks ladies and gentlemen. This coming battle cannot be won by the current technology. If you notice I did not mention anything about the number of ships or the weapons we have. Even if we get 5 times the number of ships we have currently but made with the current technology, we cannot win.” Daniel had just started his presentation, but there was pandemonium in the normally reserved committee members.
“Are you saying that USC is incapable of defending Earth?” The chair asked incredulously.
“I didn’t say that madam chair. All I said was the issue is not with the numbers but with the limitation put on our strategy and our capability to prosecute the war due to the limitations of the current technology. The biggest problem our current ships face is endurance and range. They are powered with chemical fuel and chemical rockets, which severely restricts the time they have in space and the range at which they can fight.
This means that we cannot mount a defense very far from Earth. Even then, we can never deploy all our assets for defense because there are always some ships rotating back to Earth to refuel. There is very little military tactics that can be employed when you are fighting a few million kilometers from Earth.
The worst part is that there is no buffer between the position you are fighting and the objective you are defending – Earth. Even a small glitch will enable the enemy to slip through and bombard Earth. With 8 enemy vessels approaching, there is no way even a hundred of our ships could block every possible path to approach Earth.
Wrath of the Shaitans Page 10
