by Geoff Wolak
Seeing our ships on the horizon, I asked the Preethans to exit the water, and to make ready. It was a daft suggestion, because they had never seen a ship before, let alone knew what to do. I grabbed the senior soldier in charge, found some shade from the sun, and showed him images of a ship docking, and what was needed. He explained it to the other Preethans, those that could actually be persuaded to leave the water.
With the ships getting close, the Preethans did finally leave the water, now puzzling these strange things that floated. It took another hour for the first ship to get into position, ropes tossed and caught, successfully tied off, the Preethans all very curious about the large metal beast before them. Shipboard cranes were operated, and soon a basket of frozen tuna was lowered to the dockside. I explained what it was, the same fish that they received in cans from us. They were delighted, a few fish bitten into whilst still frozen.
I explained to the senior Preethans that the ice would melt, and that the produce should be put on trucks, sent back to the oil camp and … well, eaten after thawing. They started to load up. The arrival of a convoy of buses and cars seemed to be more Preethans, but I was surprised to find their President stepping down to greet me.
I shook his hand. ‘Welcome to Galveston.’
He put a hand over his eyes and peered up at the great ship, and the cargo now being offloaded. He put his face into the next crate, lifting out a large frozen tuna and smiling like an idiot.
I said into my data-pad, ‘If you make a camp here, we will bring fish like this once a week, maybe every two weeks. It will feed your people in this area.’
He was delighted, soon shouting orders at his staff. There would be a camp here, and soon! He then asked an obvious question: where could he get one of these ships from? I offered to allow twenty Preether on board, and to learn how to sail and to catch fish. He did not need to be asked twice, twenty soldiers press-ganged into service and sent up the gangplank with their bags.
When the ship’s captain came down, I told him, ‘Teach those boys how to sail, and … someday we’ll hand over these tubs. This will now be a permanent Preethan camp, so … I’m thinking about trade with Cuba.’
The man shrugged. ‘We have fruit, and a shit load of coconuts on board.’
‘Bring some down,’ I urged.
Ten minutes later, and a crowd of Preethans observed as I cut up a pineapple, slices handed out and sampled. I next made a hole in coconut, the President drinking some of the milk. When I cut open the coconut the flesh was tasted by all.
‘These fruits are good for strength and for the body,’ I informed my audience. ‘There are Seether on an island which is three or four days sailing, and they will send you these if you send something in return, maybe equipment to farm, or seeds.’
‘Who are these Seether?’ the President asked.
‘They work for us, and do not talk with the Seethan President.’
He seemed placated. ‘OK, we swap things.’
I pointed at the crates of fruit. ‘These will last many weeks. You can take them north with you.’
I showed the President around the ship, the man marvelling its size and complexity. He received a brief run-down on how it worked, its oil boilers, and went away with an idea – or ten. This fella was just as sneaky as the Seethan President, and I wondered what he would do next.
I spent the night on the ship, eating well, our presidential party having departed. He had flown down to the airbase in a bomber, and would return the same way, flying at night. In the morning, I left the tub at the dockside, more fish being offloaded, and flew back to the main oil producing area. There, the senior Rescue Force guy grabbed me.
The man began, ‘My sources tell me … that our dear Preethan President has ordered that his people grab ships; they’ve seen abandoned ships on the coast.’
‘Excellent. If he develops a fishing fleet - great, if he populates other areas – great, and if he trades with Cuba – bloody great.’
‘He’s taking the move down here seriously,’ the man noted.
I nodded. ‘Yes, he saw the opportunity and - with the all four-legged food just wandering around here - and the oil, he’ll do well, very well.’
‘Thousands of horses have been rounded up, and cattle, a huge cattle-drive north. They’re bursting at the seams in Denver.’
‘Must smell nice,’ I quipped. ‘Anyway, find a few sailor types and have them brought over so that they can teach about oil-fired boilers, and life on the ocean wave - a good paperback essential for long nights at sea.’
Back at the embassy, I sat with Henry. ‘Excellent progress,’ I enthused. ‘We made the first trade on the dockside, Cuban fruit delivered, and enough fish to feed an army.’
Henry nodded. ‘We estimate that some forty thousand Preethan have moved to the Kansas road, or Texas, a significant shift in the population.’
‘I’d be happy to see him move his capital down there.’ I suddenly lifted a finger.
‘What is it?’ Henry puzzled.
‘The future Seethan capital is Denver, so …’
‘Maybe the Preether abandon it, and create a capital … say around Dallas.’
‘That would be in keeping with what we know about the time line,’ I said, my hands wide.
‘If the Seether keep Canada, and take Colorado, then that would double the Seethan territory. Looks like they’re set to move apart, for a while at least.’
I nodded absently as I thought about things. ‘Right or wrong – and it can’t be wrong because I was supposed to develop them my way – I’ll develop the outposts. So, whatever conflict is played out here is lessened.’
When I arrived back at the house in Trophy, Jimmy was sat waiting.
‘You seeing my wife?’ I quipped as I sat opposite him.
‘There … are a few things we need to discuss.’
I waited.
Jimmy took a moment. ‘I’ve been taking sneak peeks at the home of the Zim for some time, the world they’ve been launching attacks from, President Clayton’s world.’ He sighed. ‘What I haven’t told anyone here yet … is that twenty-six mother ships are approaching that world.’
‘Zim … mother ships?’ I puzzled. ‘Twenty six?’
Jimmy nodded. ‘Each a few miles long, possibly a million Zim in total. I informed Hal before he went.’
‘Jesus.’
‘And there are mother ships approaching the post-apocalyptic world where Clayton first encountered the Zim. Both groups are one and the same people, a result of that time line splitting. And, it seems that the one group contacted the other when they discovered portal technology, but both groups of Zim must have been on the same journey.’
‘Those two worlds … split after the Zim left their home world?’ I puzzled.
‘It seems that way. But one human world fought a nuclear war, and one missed it – Clayton’s world. It means … that they split decades ago. And, the odd paradox is … the Zim on their way to Clayton’s world would have arrived anyway.’
‘Two … sets of mother ships heading for human worlds?’ I asked, wide-eyed.
Jimmy nodded.
‘And the weapons abilities of these ships?’ I asked in a trained whisper.
‘They’ve made it across space, so they must be pretty tough. I’d hazard a guess at long distance scanners, and long distance weapons, and they certainly should be capable of ground attack. They could level cities, I believe.’
‘We’re not ready!’ I carefully mouthed.
‘No,’ Jimmy agreed. ‘But, fortunately, they’re not coming here.’
‘But about to inherit some portal technology!’ I protested.
‘They don’t have our frequency.’
‘Not yet!’ I pointed out. I heaved a sigh. ‘What’ll we do? We can’t attack an armada of mother ships.’
‘No, we can’t win in space, not a hope. But those ships came across space for a reason, and the Zim have already demonstrated that they desire some nice real estate.’
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‘They’ll land,’ I softly stated.
‘Land … where?’ Jimmy posed. ‘Where on that world would welcome a million refugees, let alone alien refugees.’
‘Will Clayton be daft enough welcome them?’ I puzzled.
‘He’s already welcomed the others, but things are not going well for him. I have a team of people … mixing things up over there. Hal, Hacker, Big Paul, Ngomo and Lobster … they’re all over there, and have been for twenty years.’
‘You kept that quiet!’ I protested, offering a peeved expression.
‘Had to be done. Right now, where Hal is, Clayton has declared a state of war and enacted states of emergency, and society in the States is breaking down, the mother ships a few days away from orbit.’
‘Why destabilise America ahead of their arrival?’ I puzzled, a frown taking hold.
‘First, that destabilizing was inevitable with the arrival of the Zim mother ships – I just brought it forwards a week or so. And second, we can’t beat the Zim in space.’ He held his hands wide.
‘They’ll land, yes, but … then what can we do?’
‘When they land, they won’t nuke their own people on the ground,’ Jimmy floated.
‘You’ll … let them land?’
‘As you said, we’re not ready, and we can’t beat them in space. But we do have ground soldiers that can kill their citizens hand to hand, and we know we can detect and destroy their small ships.’
‘A ground war?’ I whispered. I was amazed, and shocked. ‘The civilian populations will be in the firing line!’
‘That depends on where they land, but … what would happen if we do nothing?’ Jimmy posed. ‘The Zim inherit portal technology, two human worlds on which to make a happy home, and … they already know we’re mad at them. They also know about the future Seether.’
‘Those attacks on us were mostly down to Clayton, not the Zim, and at first the Zim just wanted a home – no hostile action taken. The Resistance cited dissent in the Zim ranks.’
‘True, and that’s a weapon in my arsenal. But what’s been worrying me all along was the Zim taking human form, especially on a post-apocalyptic world. Why did they do it? They could have landed, said hello with a cheery smile, offered some food and technology, and the people would have probably welcomed them.
‘But no, they went to great lengths to adopt our appearance and language, and you only do that if you want to infiltrate and to take over. I figure they would have moved into South America, Australia and New Zealand on that post-apocalyptic world, and steered things their way. I don’t think they would have desired to wipe out mankind, but to simply control political direction in the future – by stealth.’
‘Then those other ships won’t open fire on Clayton’s world,’ I suggested.
‘That’s a different case, since that world is not post-apocalyptic, and now the Zim know about portal technology – which they could use to populate many worlds. I reckon they want the technology, and they’re also approaching a densely populated world without being stealthy about it. If anything, the Zim working alongside Clayton has shown how fractious we humans are as a people, and how divided we are politically.’
‘And how duplicitous,’ I added. ‘They know our leaders can’t be trusted.’
‘Where Hal is, Russia has been disarmed, and America is in complete disarray.’
‘No human opposition to worry about,’ I said, sighing.
‘If I hadn’t created a little dissent in America on that world, I’m sure that they would have. And if the Zim land in Main Street USA in small groups, no nukes will be used on US soil.’
‘They couldn’t possibly take control, and seize political power,’ I said.
‘Not in America, no, not unless they’re great orators that appeal to the people, and even then I doubt it. That’s why I’ve hedged my bets, as well as created a paradox. I would guess that … the first time around, Clayton allowed selective landings in America; he probably had little choice, and he may well have been replaced by a Zim, as well as other key figures.’
‘There’s no way that I’m seeing Cold War Americans welcoming large numbers of aliens, Mexicans … or Zim!’
Jimmy nodded. ‘It would have led to tensions, yes. But my best guess is … that they would desire to transit through Clayton’s world for the post-apocalyptic world. And, once they have portal technology, that they keep moving. My guess is that they don’t intend to take any hostile action – at all – and just want portal access to that other world, where they’ll settle. But we still have that cataclysmic solar flare, and someone’s attitude to the future Seether; Zim or Clayton, or both.’
‘We can’t leave the Zim with portal technology,’ I cautioned.
‘We can’t leave Clayton with portal technology either! I have a few ideas, and … we’ll see how it pans out; I’m dialling in and out of that world at a specific date via Baldy and his glorious Moon base. I bet the Zim are scratching their morphic heads as well, they still don’t seem to have figured on the Moon as a portal base. And for a space-faring race, their grasp of temporal mechanics is a bit naff.’
‘And … worse case scenario?’ I broached.
‘The Zim try and take America by force of arms on the ground, striking from orbit first.’
‘And just when the hell are you going to sell that to the people here?’ I baulked.
‘Soon, real soon. Things … will get interesting. But first, first I need to send details of all this to a few other places in time and space, and see if I can’t pull a rabbit out of the hat.’
I puzzled that last statement; he was being sneaky.
A day later, Jimmy had no choice but to go public. People could see the activity and the military build-up, secret missions being conducted off world, secret meetings taking place. Unlike Clayton’s administration, our linked worlds liked things out in the open, and generally mistrusted such secrecy. They trusted Jimmy, but many leaders wanted to know what was up, exactly what was up.
Jimmy addressed a bank of cameras in London, on 1938-world. ‘Peoples of the linked worlds, we find ourselves at a grave juncture in time, a very grave situation developing. You have all known for some time of the alien attacks that other worlds have suffered, the aliens known as the Zim.
‘What I can reveal now … is that those aliens landed originally on a post-apocalyptic world, but had adopted human form first – for a reason that we still don’t understand. They were friendly, and not hostile, but may have desired to infiltrate that world, to control future direction, possibly to a peaceful end – as I have done myself. If their aim was to prevent further wars by influencing mankind, then I can’t argue with their methods or their motives.
‘But the human population may have had an issue with aliens taking over my job – and fixing worlds, since we could never be sure of their motives. Those aliens … were then discovered by a parallel human world that had developed portal technology - by a parallel version of Dr Singh. As on my original world, Dr Singh formed a resistance movement opposed to military control of the portal, and has sent us information secretly, information that is proving invaluable.
‘Using that information, and other information gathered from the Moon bases, I have worked with others to create a plan of action – based on what I think will happen, and what we should do about it. A little while ago, many well-known people stepped across to the world in question, and back in time twenty years.
‘They’ve been working behind the scenes and preparing the ground for what comes next. On the worlds where the Zim are, I recently dispatched Hal and Hacker, General Nbeki – known as Lobster, former President Ngomo of Kenya, and many others – all taken out of retirement, and some treated first to age backwards.
‘We kept that detail secret because it was necessary, and because this broadcast may be listened into by the Zim. I apologise for the secrecy, but it was necessary.’
He took a breath. ‘What comes next will not be easy – for many peoples
on our linked worlds. The attacks made against our interests on other worlds, and against the Seether, were not designed and implemented by the Zim aliens, they were orchestrated by an American President … on a developed world, a world that we have not made contact with yet.
‘That President … seems to have seen our linked worlds as a threat to his use of the Zim for internal politics. On his world, he used the Zim to attack and disarm the Russians at the height of the Cold War in their time line. He did so with minimal casualties, and America did not deploy its nuclear weapons against anyone – a commendable move. But that President, President Clayton, then discovered the future Seethan world, a world that we are developing, and seems to have panicked, fearing an alien attack. He tried to unwind that world, and … when he discovered that we were preventing him, he saw us as enemies.
‘At the key date on that world, America stands in chaos, martial law in effect, the media suspended. But that is just one problem that President Clayton’s world faces. At the key date, where we will become involved, twenty six Zim mother ships are approaching that world, and with possibly millions of aliens aboard them.’
He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Peoples of the linked worlds, millions of aliens are about to land on a human world, a world with portal technology, technology that has already been abused. If the Zim get access to those portals, then we could see Zim foot soldiers on our worlds, and infiltrating our worlds. We cannot allow that to happen. Neither can we allow our fellow humans on that world to suffer, to be over-run, nor can we allow the Zim to have portal technology. So we will fight, and we will fight with everything we have, and with no guarantees of success.
