by K. D. Mattis
“At ease, Admiral.”
Relaxing, Asher looked at the man. His perfectly pressed suit and perfectly groomed hair displayed confidence, but his eyes, sunken and dark, showed exhaustion.
“Is there something wrong, President Krasinski?”
The man paced several times before grabbing a glass and pouring himself some water. After gulping it down, he looked at the wall.
“It’s these vultures.”
“Vultures, sir?”
“The media. They just wait for me to say something wrong. They act as if I’m solely responsible for everything that goes on in the world. The idea of being the President of the United States is fantastic, but the reality is that it’s a thankless job. If you ever get the chance, don’t take it.”
Asher couldn’t stop a small laugh from escaping. She cleared her throat and tried to act as if it didn’t happen.
The president noticed.
“It’s all right, Admiral. I know it sounds funny, but the job isn’t as glamorous as it seems.”
Standing, Asher watched as the president continued to pace the room. Occasionally he looked at the papers on the table. Other times he looked at the pictures along the walls. The rest of the time, he didn’t seem to look at anything at all.
“Asher, you said something a while back that stuck with me,” he said.
“What’s that?”
The president paced a few more steps before suddenly stopping. He looked at Asher and her mountain of papers. Then he pulled a chair out from the table and slammed his body into it.
“You told me that we needed to prepare for something big.”
“Yes, and I still believe that.”
“Of course you do. But let me ask you something. Do we know what we’re preparing for?”
“Sir,” Asher said, “I don’t know what to expect any more than you do. A part of me wants to believe that the attack was an isolated event and that it won’t happen again. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case.”
“And you’re concerned about the warning?”
“Aren’t you?”
He nodded. “America is strong, and we stay strong by always being prepared for the worst. The question here is simple. How do we prepare for something we’ve never faced before?”
Sorting through the papers in front of her, Asher found one that showed a full picture of the space station. After looking it over, she handed it to the president.
“We do something we’ve never done before.”
The president looked at the paper. “Admiral, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but we’ve built a space station before. The aliens blew it up. Frankly, they seem pretty good at blowing stuff up.”
“That’s why we can’t just build another space station,” Asher said. “Yes, this will be another space station, but it’s part of something much bigger. It will be a research station, a shipyard, and part of a powerful grid for planetary defense.”
“And how much is it going to cost?”
Asher stared at the president. She anticipated every question … except that one.
“Sir, does cost make a difference?”
“Cost always makes a difference.”
“I’m going to disagree with that. When it comes to protecting ourselves from an unknown threat, I don’t think cost should be the thing that keeps us from defending ourselves.”
“That’s not the only thing,” the president said. “You know as well as I do that there’s something else.”
“The treaty?”
“That’s the one. I know it’s a pain, but the treaty says we can’t have a military installation or weapon caches in space.”
Asher forced herself to take a large gulp from her glass of water. Her throat felt dry, but the water did nothing to wet it.
“We already have the Explorer, and it had a nuclear missile on it.”
“I know that, Asher, but that was a one-time deal. We were able to get that as a precaution against asteroids that could have threatened the mission. Now that we’ve used it as a weapon, we can’t do that again. Not without angering a lot of nations. We can’t afford that.”
Again, Asher found herself fighting for words. “Sir, are you saying that we can’t defend ourselves again?”
“No, Admiral. I’m not saying that. I need time. I need to work with the Senate and the other nations to figure something out. In the meantime, we need to do everything we can short of breaking the treaty.”
“So, you’re saying we can get close to the line?” Asher asked.
“Exactly, but we can’t cross it. Not again.”
21
“Gibbs, it doesn’t matter,” Asher said as her crew made their way to the simulation chamber once more. “We won’t have another nuke on the Explorer, so it does no good to test with one.”
“I understand that, Admiral, but if it’s the only thing that can defeat the aliens, then we have to give it a chance. Maybe we can convince them.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, sir, but I’m sure we can.”
Asher was quiet as they entered the chamber. She removed the jacket of her uniform, showing a gray shirt tucked neatly into the waistband of her pants.
“Lieutenant Card, start the simulation.”
“Yes, sir. Which one would you like?”
“I don’t care. I just want to go up against a single alien ship in open space.”
“Sir, I’ll have it loaded in just a moment.”
The rest of the crew rushed to their stations and strapped in, as if entering a real battle. The lights of the room dimmed while the consoles lit up. In just moments, the crew looked ready to take on anything the aliens could offer.
Asher stood.
She watched several members of the scanning team exchange glances. The alien vessel approached, and she hadn’t strapped herself in as she normally would.
“Admiral?” questioned a young corpsman.
Asher looked ahead at the two monitors at the front of the room. Both showed an empty expanse of space, but she knew it was there. Waiting for them.
“Admiral, the alien vessel is approaching,” said the same corpsman.
She caught sly smiles from tactical officers Holt and Tran.
The Corpsman of the diagnostics team cleared his throat and spoke up louder. “Admiral, the alien vessel is approaching. How should we respond?”
“I don’t know,” Asher said, “but maybe we should prepare the nuke. It seemed to work fine and dandy last time.”
Holt and Tran laughed until Gibbs shot them a stern look.
Reynolds grabbed for a key around his neck. After looking the admiral up and down several times over, he took his key and inserted it into his console. With a quick turn of the key, he turned back to the admiral.
“Sir, my station is clear to go.”
Asher nodded. She paused, wondering if she was overemphasizing her point, but it wouldn’t keep her from using her key. She removed her key and stuck it in the console of her command chair. When she turned the key, a flashing red button and targeting system appeared at the tactical console.
“Admiral,” Gibbs said, “that’s enough. You can’t be serious.”
The admiral turned toward her tactical team. “Fire.”
Holt looked eager to hit the button, but the Lieutenant Commander couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“Is there a problem?” Asher asked.
“Sir, it’s just that the alien vessel is too close.”
“That’s nice. Fire the nuke.”
Slamming his hand on the red button, Holt looked at the monitors with great interest. The alien vessel filled up most of the left screen and the right screen showed what looked like empty space. In reality, it showed how small the alien vessel looked at just a few miles away.
The left screen instantly turned white. As the nuclear blast hit the alien vessel, both screens went dark, and the lights in the simulation chamber came back on.
A mechanical voice a
nnounced, “Simulation complete. Status: failure. All Space Corps vessels are destroyed. One alien vessel survived.”
All of the crew remained seated except for Commander Gibbs. He shot up from his seat and approached the admiral.
“Sir, what was that?”
“I would watch my tone if I were you, Commander.”
Biting his lip, the commander placed his hands behind his back. Asher stood and stared him down.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t understand the point of this exercise.”
“You wanted to use a nuke, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir, but this doesn’t prove anything.”
“Doesn’t it?” Asher asked. “We shot a nuclear missile at the alien ship. We were too close. The force of the explosion destroyed the Explorer.”
“Admiral, I understand that, but the nuke worked in a real battle.”
“That was a gamble. Our backs were against the wall, and we needed to try something. Given the chance, I would have done something different.”
“What?” asked Gibbs.
“Anything. Nuclear missiles are powerful. There’s no denying that, but they’re hard to control. They put too much at risk. Obviously, if this were a real battle, we wouldn’t have fought this way, but it proves a point. We can’t just rely on nukes.”
Chief Reynolds removed his harness and said, “There’s also something else to consider. A nuclear blast emits a lot of radiation. We’re probably okay with one blast, but what happens if we’re near many more?”
“I understand the risk of radiation poisoning,” Gibbs said, “but—”
“But I have a lot of living left to do,” said Asher. “I don’t intend to die because of radiation exposure. Not when there are other ways to fight the aliens. Even if I could ignore the radiation poisoning, there’s still the fact that a nuclear blast emits an electromagnetic pulse, similar to the alien weapon.”
Asher dismissed her crew for lunch, but Commander Gibbs remained standing in place. When he and the admiral were the only ones left in the room, he looked toward the ground.
“Admiral, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. Not in front of others.”
“You’re right. It won’t happen again.”
“No, sir, it won’t. However, I hope you will give me the chance to apologize properly.”
Asher grabbed her coat and threw it on. She didn’t bother to zip it up.
“All right, Commander. If you want to buy me lunch, I’ll let you,” Asher said.
“Sir, I have something better than a sandwich for you. I’ve worked on protection from the EMP bomb. It’s not perfect, but I think it will work.”
Asher froze.
“Ryan, are you serious?”
“Completely.”
“You realize what this could do for us?”
Gibbs smiled and pulled a thin tablet from the inside of his coat.
“I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I have the design laid out.”
Grabbing the tablet, Asher started to walk out of the room. Her excitement led her to walk much faster than usual. As her boots hurried down the hall to her office, the commander fell behind. Realizing how far ahead the admiral had gone, Gibbs jogged to catch up.
“Admiral, I don’t want you to be too excited by this. It will work, but it’s far from perfect.”
Asher stopped. She put a hand on her commander’s shoulder and looked him dead in the eye.
“Right now, anything is better than nothing. We’re at a major disadvantage at the moment. We don’t know when the aliens will come back. What we do know is that we’re not able to move fast enough to prepare for another assault. If there is anything, I mean anything, in this tablet that can help us, then that could mean the difference between us fending them off in battle or being destroyed.”
Gibbs wrung his hands. “I’m aware of that, sir. I just … can we go into your office to discuss it?”
Asher took the seat behind her desk and placed the tablet in front of her. Commander Gibbs remained standing as she began scrolling through the files on the device. After several seconds, Asher noticed the commander remained standing.
“Gibbs,” Asher said, “I shouldn’t have to tell you that you’re welcome to have a seat.”
“Sorry, sir.”
Once Gibbs sat in the chair, Asher turned her attention back to the tablet. Long explanations of the problem scrolled across the screen, but she didn’t care about that. She knew the problem. After seeing the design for a new sensor and a device she wasn’t familiar with, she leaned back in her chair.
“Well?” Asher asked.
“Well, what?”
“Well, how does it work?”
“It’s simple enough. The EMP bomb overloads all electrical devices on our ship. Since most of the ship is dependent on one electrical device or another, it knocks us out completely.”
Gibbs rubbed his palms on his pants before continuing. “While that’s miserable, the bomb doesn’t affect any device that doesn’t have a charge. That’s where my shielding comes in.”
The sharp ring of Asher’s office phone interrupted the commander. Without looking, Asher picked up the receiver and dropped it down.
“Sorry about that,” Asher said. “Please continue.”
“My sensor is capable of detecting an incoming electromagnetic pulse. As soon as the EMP is detected, a signal is sent to all systems on the ship, and then all charges across the ship then release just before the blast hits. When it does, the EMP doesn’t cause an overload, and therefore doesn’t shut down the ship.”
Again, Asher’s phone rang. Again, Asher picked up the receiver and hung up.
“So, the ship would still go down?” Asher asked.
“Yes, but it would go down on our terms, and the equipment on the ship wouldn’t be damaged. From there, it takes a few minutes to bring the ship back up, but it can then rejoin the fight.”
Asher rolled her eyes when her phone rang again. Instead of ignoring it, she picked up the receiver.
“Yes?” Asher said, obviously irritated.
The adjutant on the other end of the line said, “Sir, it’s the president.”
For several moments, Asher sat with her ear at the phone and her eyes fixed on her desk. She waved a hand toward the door to dismiss the commander.
“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll be there in a few hours.”
22
The man at the podium was tall and muscular. Even through his suit, he was physically intimidating. Asher watched him rant with clenched teeth.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I do not wish to downplay the fact that the United States took on a powerful enemy,” said the Russian Federation delegate of the United Nations, “but it should be noted that they have already broken the space treaty of 1967. By taking a nuclear device into space, they have insulted the majority of the world. We cannot ignore this. We cannot allow this to happen again.”
The Russian delegate stepped down from the podium to applause from almost everyone in the room. As he walked back to his seat, he intentionally bumped into the back of the delegate of the United States.
Asher sat among the few who did not clap. Beneath the desk, she clenched her fists. Even with the stacks of paper in front of her that explained her case, she didn’t feel she had a chance of changing the minds of the United Nations.
When the Chinese delegate took to the podium, Asher relaxed her fists. She recognized the man as the ambassador who presented her and her crew with a medal.
“The United States signed an agreement,” said the Chinese ambassador, “and they must abide by that agreement. We are grateful for the assistance the Americans provided the crew of the Tianjin after it was attacked. However, this does not excuse their disregard for the treaty.
“We were most concerned when the Americans chose to join us in a race to the planet Mars. We knew there was risk. After all, the Americans would be flying a military craft. Then, when they used a nuclear weap
on in space, they confirmed our worst fears.
“It is not our belief that they should be punished for their past actions because those past actions greatly benefited the nation of China. Even so, we must stress that we stand united with many other nations here today in saying that the United States must not be allowed to violate the treaty again. We do not intend to stop them from building a space station, but that station must not be armed.”
She couldn’t help it. Asher’s jaw hung slightly limp after hearing the Chinese delegate’s words. In an instant, she went from betrayed to angry. Standing, she made her voice heard.
“You came to us for help. We helped you even though it meant we had to abandon our mission. Now you turn against us?”
The Chinese delegate folded his hands and stepped down from the podium without another word. The woman running the meeting, however, banged her gavel against her desk.
Drawing courage from the banging gavel, Asher jumped from her seat and took the podium. Angry whispers ran through the crowd. While she couldn’t ignore them, Asher chose not to listen to them.
“All of you need to listen.”
“The floor does not recognize any representative from the United States,” said the speaker.
“You don’t have to recognize me,” Asher said, “but you will listen. Those aliens attacked the Tianjin. According to the Chinese, the aliens attacked the Tianjin without provocation. Later, the aliens attacked us as well. Again, it was without provocation. This should be a clear sign to everyone here just how dangerous they are.
“We don’t know what they want. We don’t know why they’re in our solar system. What we do know is that they were willing to attack us. I’m not asking for the ability to attack them. I’m only asking for the ability to defend ourselves against them. We wouldn’t just be defending the US, but the whole world.”
The speaker of the group banged the gavel even harder on the table. With her free hand, she waved security to remove Asher from the room.
“All of you must act!” Asher shouted. “If we don’t prepare to defend ourselves now, when the aliens come again, it will be too late.”
