by Don Koch
"If we do not reach the numbers we need, sad to say, we will move on to the next civilization to see if we can get the help we need there, and we will remember you in our prayers."
"We will start accepting requests for positions on the station, for health and education treatments immediately. People on the planet need only show up with your family at one of the machines we have placed all over the planet and express interest and the processing will begin. If the demand exceeds immediate capacity, we will keep the communication units in place for the next two months."
"Just outside of those doors we have prepared a reception and have a number of people there to respond to your questions. The translation mechanism will work there as well. People of the press, we will return you now from your originating location with an information package that provides a lot more detail about the Station and the fleet. Thank you for attending." With that the press corps disappeared. Hank then said "this ends this transmission. The leaders will be returned to their locations in one hour."
The reception was a lawn affair at the lodge near Mt Robust. This location was remarkable for its view. The leaders were most notably affected by the sharply curved horizon and it was obviously a point of animated discussion. The President of the United States came over to Hank who was standing with Sam and shook his hand. "Well, General Stone this is most definitely one of the more shocking surprises of my life."
Hank said, "It came as something of a surprise to me as well, Mr. President. May I introduce my wife, Samantha."
Sam curtsied and said, "pleasure to meet you Mr. President."
The President said, "The pleasure is all mine."
"Henry and I have a request to make that has no promise of reciprocation. We would like to request Honorable Discharges for two officers, one Marine and one Navy. The Marine is Lt. Colonel Albert Williams and the Naval officer is his wife Commander Sharon Williams. Here is a packet with information about them."
"Commander Williams, Commander Sharon Williams, why is that name so familiar, I… wait, she is that naval aviator that was shot down by a terrorist about 5 or 6 weeks ago. That tends to complicate things a bit."
"Mr. President, I can tell you that the report of her demise was premature. I had her plane under watch and unfortunately the missile came in too quickly for us to do any more than extract her from the plane. That gave the appearance that she had died in the ensuing explosion. Happily she is alive and well and we want her as one of our wing commanders. Barana, please transport Hardrock and Fudgenickle here." They appeared instantly, he in his USMC Dress Blues and she in USN Dress Whites. "Mr. President, I have the distinct pleasure to present Lt. Colonel Albert 'Hardrock' Williams, USMC and Commander Sharon 'Fudgenickle' Williams USN, Deceased."
The President shook hand with Hardrock and then with Sharon saying, "and a prettier ghost I've never seen."
"In that folder Mr. President, is the evidence and location, co-conspirators, surveillance records, photographs of the launch, video of his egress, sources, everything you need to stamp this cell completely. They also appear to be setting up for another run in 3 days so its time to close them down. I would prefer that the source of this intelligence not be disclosed at this time. As to the surveillance footage, you could say you were testing a drone's intelligence gathering ability and stumbled into a real live event. Anyway, this appears to be an important cell and all I can say is have fun with it. I had best circulate with the other leaders. I will ask Barana to set you up with a communication link with me so you can call anytime but understand we do not take orders now from any government except that of the fleet. The leadership of that Government is a troika consisting of Fador, Barana and myself. Later Mr. President."
"Thank you General Stone." He then turned to Albert and Sharon and said, "Lets chat about to how to handle your 'resurrection', shall we." And he led them off
"Sam, who would you like to talk to next."
"How about the Russian President, you have been wanting to try out your new language skills."
"Right you are."
Chapter 14: Press Conference
White House, Washington, DC –
October 29 - C Day 60
The President walked into the pressroom and went to the podium. He started the press conference with, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the press. Thank you for coming on such short notice. I will say at the outset that this is not directly about the Antoran business of two days ago."
"As you may recall, about 6 weeks ago a terrorist attack took out one of our planes on a routine patrol off the coast of Virginia. Piloting that plane was Commander Sharon Williams, USN who was believed lost in that incident. Two days ago following the briefing of world leaders on the Glarin threat, I was told by the Antoran Fleet Commander that Station One saw the event in progress and was able to extract Commander Williams without serious injury just a fraction of a second before her plane was destroyed. Commander Williams had recently married and her husband has retired from service. She has asked for the same and I am pleased to oblige. But first I would like to introduce her to you. She is a marvelous role model for young Americans today. Commander, please join me at the podium." Sharon joined the President at the podium and he continued, "Sharon deserves much more than this Air Medal which it my pleasure to award to her. When I asked what she intends to do next, she told me that she has asked the Antorans to accept her into their service and they have offered her command of a warship group and is expected to command a full wing in a few months. Commander, I am proud to know you and wish you Godspeed in your new posting. I hate to lose you from our services but your talents are well directed to this new endeavor. Thank you for your service."
"Thank you sir".
The President continued, "On a related note, the FBI has had the terrorism suspect under surveillance based on a tip and yesterday took the entire cell into custody. 10 persons were arrested and all of their records were captured. They had an alarming inventory of weapons including three more missiles of the type that took down Commander Williams plane. I will not be taking questions on this event, however there is a handout with more on the whole affair. By the way, Commander Williams exit will be far more flashy than mine." Turning to her he said, "Hope to see you and Hardrock soon again."
"Me too sir and thanks," she replied and gave him a salute and disappeared. This caused something of a stir amongst the press corps who had generally not had much experience with that mode of transportation.
The President turned to the press corps and said, "I am not sure that I will ever get used to that vanishing act means of transportation in spite of all the preparation we have been exposed to via out television and movie shows. I have one final issue to tell you about.
You are all aware of the statements made two days ago by the Antoran fleet. Since the Antorans have made a pretty convincing demonstration of their ability to halt aggression and secure national borders, I have this morning signed an executive order to the effect that we are immediately pulling out all of our troops engaged in combat in other countries. This includes troops stationed at the DMZ in Korea. We are taking all of our equipment with us except for that we have agreed to provide for the governments we have been supporting. This is to avoid temptation for those who would use that equipment for their own gain. We have asked the Antoran fleet for assistance in doing this and they have agreed to provide a fleet of their shuttles to accomplish this. Most of this equipment will be stockpiled and mothballed at locations in the West, primarily California. The Antoran Fleet has also stated that they would extract any foreign troops fighting in those countries and send them to their country of origin. We will then begin an orderly downsizing of our forces, not, I hasten to add, elimination. More announcements will be forthcoming as this proceeds. Thank you ladies and gentlemen, that is all for now." And he quickly left the room of stunned reporters.
As he left sight of the reporters he was chuckling to himself and thinking, not bad, not bad, a little sleight of hand with Sha
ron, de facto support for the Antoran effort and, whammy pull back our troops. That will do wonders for balancing the budget as long as Stone doesn't steal all of my good people. But then the training he is providing for free is a monster plus. Yes, reduction of our population without a catastrophe just might get us back on the path.
Chapter 15: Review
Station 1 in Earth Orbit –
October 30 – C Day 61
Hank and Sam were taking a few minutes to themselves and Barana in their quarters and at their request Barana had set the telepathic shields in place. Sam started the conversation mind to mind,
Hank replied,
Barana added,
Hank said,
A few minutes later Fador appeared and telepathically said,
Fador continued verbally, "Changing the subject for a moment, we have had a considerable response to your offer to improve the health of and to educate the disenfranchised, more than I would honestly have expected. There were more than 400 million the first day. All are being processed however a large number of active terrorists have been refused and told why. Some of those then tried to intimidate others at the recruiting device and were summarily dropped in the prison courtyards of their respective countries, sans weapons. We warned the guards that they were coming. The reaction of the guards was interesting and cooperative. Many of the terrorists were on the wanted lists of their countries."
Sam spoke up, "I have an idea about that. Why not return those people to the country of origin, tag them so they can't leave that country, and tell that country that this is their problem, deal with it. As I understand it, Barana can tag such a person with an undetectable tag that will not allow the person to cross the geographic limits of that country. Anyone so tagged would go catatonic if an attempt to cross those geographic limits was attempted."
"Wow what a cool idea, Barana is that doable?"
"Fador, do you see any reason why we should not do this."
"No I do not, and it resolves an issue I was worried about and that is internal strife generated by such groups in a country. This essentially neutralizes that issue and lets the people get on with preparing a defense against the Glarin. I like it."
"OK lets do this, make an announcement to all the countries that we are returning all their friends to them. Tell them the limitations we have imposed on those individuals but not how. Tell them they have 12 hours to tell us where in their capital city they are to be deposited and that it must be in a public outdoor location. The spot of return is to be a 50' circle painted in red with a 5' wall encircling it. They returnees will commence 12 hours later at 5-minute intervals. If the number is too large we will advise an alternative."
Fador went on, "The response relating to past military veterans also exceeds expectations. This will likely diminish some when those persons realize that there is a more limited tolerance to misdeeds than experienced on Earth and no chance to hide those misdeeds. The disabled veterans response was quite large, particularly in your country, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. In addition, the actions of the US President this morning has quite a number of other countries falling over themselves to follow his actions. Whether we like it or not, the pot, as you would say it, has been well and truly stirred. We are getting some very good candidates from just about every point on the globe. Once the screening is done we should have a very good force to work with. I think that some countries are thinking that troops that sign on with us will be prime assets if and when they return. I suspect that they are setting themselves up for disappointment. First, I do not think many will wish to return. Second, the skills put to use here, aside from discipline, are not likely to be transferrable skills for opportunities on Earth. Third, once having served in this military, it is unlikely they will wish to resume an Earth bound military career."
"I have been very impressed with your General Carson. He has been a Godsend in structuring the military administration of this fleet. He is working well with Josh. We are going to be well ahead of your schedule of ready forces."
"That reminds me I have a little recruitment assignment for Joe to handle if he is willing."
Sam said, "I really like Joe and June and they are really enjoying themselves. It’s hard to believe that seven weeks they were both at death's door. Will I be overdoing my quota if I spring another notion on all of you? It really pretty simple, maybe stupid, but maybe it will produce results."
"No idea is stupid with this group. Some things work and some don't. There will be no criticism from any of us if we do not think an idea will work. Shoot, we would probably try it anyway just for fun. So shoot sweetie, I admit you have me curious."
"Ditto," said Fador.
Sam continued, "Ok, well you know that I have been trying to identify telepaths in the crowds that are coming to the station and have not even got to the other stations to test there. Hank and I have found a few but we are only going to scratch the surface before they move on. There are just too many to deal with. So I have been trying figure out how to achieve a more efficient approach. The ones we have found are those who were agitated by all the other minds around t
hem in too close a proximity. When we would visit such a person and erect a telepathic shield, the agitation immediately ceased. These were generally people who did not know how to raise a personal shield. There are those who know how and are not bothered by all the other minds around them. Those will be difficult to find using this method. A thought crossed my mind that these folks are still responsive to stimuli even in the medical and/or learning machines. My idea is this, what if Hank, Fador and I were to send a thought to everyone on the station that essentially said, if you hear this, raise your arm put it down and then raise it again and put it down. Ask Barana to record the location of everyone that complies. At the same time telepathically shield the entire station for that test. Would we not have identified all who could receive a telepathic message on the station?"
Hank and Fador were stunned. Barana said,
"To rule out those non telepaths who raise an arm as a random occurrence unrelated to the instruction."
Fador, Hank and Sam linked and sent the massage
