Red Dot: Contact. Will the gravest threat come from closer to home than we expect? (2 page)

“People are also going to think the authorities will be too busy to stop them,” he continued. “And when the rioting starts, it will get out of hand fast.” Douthart watched Fitzgerald warily.
Cripes, he seemed like a nose-to-the-grindstone
type who would represent our pledge for a strong military without any drama. Turns out he’s all drama
, he thought.

The discussion then turned to defense preparations. “I say we should go to DEFCON 2,” said the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Marlon Peoples, whose slight frame and quiet voice belied his stellar military record—and the radical nature of the measure he proposed. The room grew quiet at the suggestion that the US military go from Defense Readiness Condition 5, the normal peacetime state, to DEFCON 2—just one step from actual imminent nuclear war. That condition had been declared only once before: for the Strategic Air Command during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

“It will give the public confidence that we’re getting ready,” Peoples said.

“No, no, no,” Secretary of State Douglas Whiteton said emphatically. He generally spoke slowly, in more measured tones that seemed to fit his position as an elder statesman. And with his friendly, calm smile and sagging jowls, he looked like the wise, old, uncle family members approached to mediate disputes or give advice on personal problems. But he inspired respect and even fear among government insiders, for his reputation as a ruthless political and bureaucratic infighter.

The few people who went head-to-head with him ended up slinking off to new careers.

Some critics mocked him for his occasional pomposity, but he was also capable of crisp analysis and even eloquence. Other NSC members knew he was tenacious when he decided on a course he thought was important, and in this crisis he obviously wanted to make this point clear.

“With all due respect, General Peoples, an extreme step like that would make the public think we’re in great danger, when, in fact, we don’t know if there’s any military threat at all.”

Douthart would later decide on the more moderate course of moving to DEFCON 4, which called for increased intelligence and security measures, while awaiting more information. Now he mostly looked on helplessly.

It was the first big test for a President who’d entered office a year and a half earlier as something of a question mark. A young, respected, but mostly
undistinguished senator from Virginia, he didn’t inspire confidence in all quarters. Douthart was a little short for a presidential candidate, but was conventionally handsome, with a square chin, thick black hair, and an engaging smile that matched his wry sense of humor. He was a capable campaigner when the chips were down, but those who followed him closely on the campaign trail noticed that sometimes his mind seemed to wander. During a rally or a debate, the smile might fleetingly freeze, and it looked as if behind his wide-set brown eyes, he had found something that interested him more than politicking.

In past tough situations, which now seemed eminently manageable, the President had been able to depend on Deputy Secretary of State Susan Binski to bring order to a discussion. She would sit back thoughtfully in her dark, leather chair, listening to a meandering discussion, and then lean forward with a succinct and reasonable plan of action. Now she sat in her usual seat, familiar in her favorite yellow sweater. But she was slumped and staring vacantly at the edge of the table.

Hopefully, Douthart turned to her. “Sue, what do you think?”

The buzz in the room quieted as Binski slowly straightened up and said, “We shouldn’t fine tune our response. People are going to be shocked and worried. We have to give them confidence we’re being open and taking what measures we can.”

Everything seemed to slow down after her short comment, and the President finally gained control of the discussion. The first thing he wanted to do was stress the importance of being open and truthful about findings and policies, as his Deputy Secretary of State had said.

“There’s going to be every sort of rumor flying around, and no shortage of people promoting them from every angle,” he said. “It may be tempting to withhold or twist some information, but we must be constant and reliable, and like Sue said, trust people to make their own decisions.”

After a half hour of focused give-and-take, the meeting neared its end. As everyone shuffled notebooks and papers together to get ready to leave, the President said, “Before class is dismissed, I’d like to share a couple of thoughts.

“We’re all trained and experienced high-level crisis managers, but finding out an alien spaceship really and truly is coming threw us into confusion—almost panic—for hours. How will other leaders around the world and the public react, especially if the aliens make a threatening move? And,” he said, glancing at Defense Secretary Fitzgerald and General Peoples, “the approach exposed severe internal policy and political differences. As this plays out in the next month and a half, are we going to have more problems with ETs, or with Earthlings?”

A moment of silence showed that most Council members didn’t know how to respond to his question. Most seemed to think that he couldn’t be serious, as they finished putting their things together and started chatting with their colleagues. The President looked on, frustrated that he couldn’t explain his concerns more clearly. For now he just had a bad feeling that mankind’s fearful reaction to beings from another world would cause more turmoil than the ETs themselves. But he didn’t have time to figure that out now.

Rushing to get ahead of a potential leak of the stunning news, the President left to go on television to address the world.

“My fellow Americans, and ladies and gentlemen watching this broadcast around the world, I have news to report that is shocking and profound. I will tell you exactly what we know at this time. Our scientists have identified an object approaching from far away in the outer part of the solar system—an object that has made at least one change of course that could only be directed by an intelligent source. The object—which scientists have designated Data23w9, or D9—is roughly fifty to one hundred yards or meters long, and is about one billion, one hundred million miles from the Sun. That would be one billion, seven hundred seventy million kilometers.

“At its present speed and rate of acceleration, it will intersect the orbit of Earth on October 16, this year, 2022, in the evening, Eastern Standard Time. That is forty-four days from now. Its present course will take it slightly more than one million miles, 1.7 million kilometers, from Earth. That is about four times the distance of the Earth to the Moon. Close enough to be within reach, though it won’t impact our planet. We are assuming D9 is visiting this remote spot in the galaxy because we are here, and that the craft will begin
orbiting the Earth at that point. We also assume that D9 will implement its plans to contact us after it begins orbiting Earth.

“That is all we know at this time. We don’t know if there are living beings on the object operating it, or if its course is programmed from outside. We don’t know what capabilities the object has, or the intent of those who are guiding it.

“We do know that we as humans have immense reserves of intellectual ability, courage, creativity, and inner, spiritual strength that have enabled us to triumph over countless frightening challenges in the past thousands of generations. Now we will work together and trust the strengths that have served us so well. I have begun to contact other leaders in America and around the world to discuss our response. Tomorrow, I plan to address the United States Congress and the General Assembly of the United Nations to help establish a framework that will allow the people of the world to work in a spirit of cooperation and openness. I am confident we will meet this challenge with a resourcefulness and dignity that will make generations to come proud.”

The public reacted to the shocking news like a boxer rocked by a hard punch: staggering around uncertainly at first, but gradually getting his wits about him again and carrying on the fight. A little dazed, but still with purpose. Initially, people sought out family members and friends to share the sudden burden of shock and uncertainty. The world of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and the like exploded. To a great extent, social media served as a safety valve, releasing inevitable waves of fear and suspicion.

Fear of harm from beings with vastly superior technology and unknown, possibly malicious, motives was a powerful source of anxiety, but according to some commentators, there was more. Now it was proven that there was life elsewhere in the universe, and it shook the comfortable belief systems of people around the world.

Most religious authorities took a few days to absorb the news. Would they regard life from outside Earth, and even outside the solar system, as an evil threat to their traditional views? Reactions of various sects swept from one extreme to another. Islamic radicals in Iran threatened to topple the country’s elected government, to ensure Allah’s support against the godless
aliens. A few churches in the US decided the ETs were sent by God to bring salvation, and joyously prepared for D9’s arrival.

But a consensus finally emerged among major religions that accepted, and in fact embraced, the possibility of alien life, and Pope Paul VII talked about it in a worldwide address.

“The love, mercy, and power of our Lord, who has supported and comforted us in matters great and small for so many centuries, is boundless. Only the small-minded would think Almighty God is limited by the boundaries of a country or planet or any other heavenly body. What is approaching us now is part of God’s universe, and we are, as always, governed by our Lord’s commandments and sheltered by his love.”

Around the world, however, countries and groups suspicious of or opposed to American influence voiced concern. Iran, China, and Russia quickly stated they would decide their own policies regarding the spacecraft in concert with other countries, and warned the US not to take unilateral action. Even close allies such as Britain and Germany let it be known that significant decisions should be made through cooperation among nations. What emerged was a United Nations model: Smaller countries received reports and gave their views, but influential nations in the U.N. Security Council made major policies.

And while social media let people blow off steam, it also promoted plenty of conspiracy theories. Some hardcore conservatives claimed that the government had manufactured the D9 crisis to make it easier to add more power to Big Government, and to raise taxes. A larger group of far-right conservatives didn’t necessarily think government made up the approach of an alien craft, but feared that the Democratic Congress and President Douthart, whose ardor for smaller government was in doubt, would indeed give the government more power and resources.

“Well, America, here come the space aliens with their super-advanced technology and weapons, and what will they find?” said one highly rated TV pundit. “A defense softened by years of neglect by Democrats, a weak-willed public used to getting other people to pay their way, and morality that keeps reaching new lows.”

To the left, extremists saw the super-rich taking advantage of the chaos to consolidate their wealth and political influence without restraint. More-mainstream liberals expected a major push to roll back safeguards against discrimination by race, gender, and sexual orientation as conservatives dug in to protect their core beliefs, echoing extreme pundits’ rants against the dangers of a decline in morality.

One liberal TV show host literally pounded his desk, declaring, “Ignorant, hard-right politicians have spent two decades belittling the importance of science—I’m talking to you, climate-change deniers and creationists. And they’ve mercilessly slashed funding for research and higher education. Now, now with these technologically hyper-advanced ETs coming, we’re all going to pay the price.”

And gun-rights activists expected the government to grab more power on the pretext of preparing for the ETs, and then use some of that power to attack the Second Amendment; gun and ammunition sales skyrocketed. Sales soared for canned goods, electric generators, and other survivalist mainstays.

But the biggest danger came from the threat of collapse of the financial system. Markets hated uncertainty, and when that included a possible attack by a vastly superior alien force, the stage was set for pure panic. Stocks initially plunged, as people stampeded to exchange shares that might be worthless in a couple of months for cash to buy things they could use or enjoy before D9 arrived. Markets from New York to Hong Kong enacted strict trading limits, and every nation imposed capital controls. They made efforts to be fair—efforts that were generally well received. Banks also limited withdrawals. The world had suffered from a near-financial system collapse just fourteen years earlier, so most businesses and people accepted limits on transactions as necessary to prevent another catastrophe. For now, the system held together.

On a personal level, there were plenty of “take this job and shove it” tales of rash decisions. Three local TV newscasters quit on air in the first week of the crisis, citing a laundry list of complaints and injustices. Reporters who stayed found an inexhaustible supply of people doing things because of the looming arrival of space aliens. There was the heartwarming—Bob in Cleveland married his girlfriend of five years and adopted her two kids—and
the disturbing—Emily in San Diego left her husband and four children because she wasn’t as happy as she deserved to be—and the just plain weird—Dorothy and Ben agreed to bungee jump together off the five highest bridges in the world.

The widespread riots and lawlessness predicted by some, however, failed to materialize. Instead, people around the world settled into an anxious but peaceful routine. Then the red dots appeared.

T
HEY
’
RE
H
ERE

T
he muffled roar
of jet engines felt comforting in the cushy first-class compartment Claire sat in. Pushing away whisperings of guilt for escaping the economy class she crowded into during her college days, she relaxed in her big, comfortable seat and enjoyed the pampering.