Red Dot: Contact. Will the gravest threat come from closer to home than we expect? (24 page)

He delayed contacting Claire at NASA until he spoke to Duggard. She finished her address at Congress about ten minutes later and headed to the White House for a meeting with the Cabinet, which her staff had hurriedly put together, to approve a document stating that the President was incapacitated. On the way, the Secretary of State told her about the EP1 attack. Already consumed with anxiety about the Douthart’s condition, Duggard listened to Whiteton in silence.

Then she said in a soft voice, “I’ll discuss it with the Cabinet.”

When she reached the meeting in the Situation Room, most Cabinet members and some other members of the National Security Council were there, speaking among themselves in somber tones. Duggard sat down and saw the document on the table in front of her, certifying the President’s incapacity.

“Has there been any change in, in the President?” she asked Aaron Tejeda, the President’s Chief of Staff. He sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity, until Whiteton began to think they may have to have someone else report on the President’s condition.

Finally the emotional Tejeda managed to say, in an even voice, “No. He is being operated on. The medical staff said he is in critical condition and will not be able to perform any duties as President for at least several weeks.”

Duggard picked up a pen lying beside the document and stared at the papers for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry, Al. I’ll do the best I can … until you get back,” she said. She signed and pushed the document to the person next to her. All the Cabinet members present signed next to their printed titles.

As Tejeda relayed the document to Congress, Whiteton outlined the options he had come up with, and the pros and cons.

“There is no way this turns out well,” Whiteton said to the grim-faced Cabinet members. They crowded around the long, wooden table with papers spread out before them, as usual, but now sat glumly through Whiteton’s briefing with little of the usual note-taking or sipping of drinks.

If EP1 worked, the Secretary of State said, destroying D9, America would have violated the principles outlined by President Douthart and killed intelligent creatures who may have been innocent and non-threatening. And destruction of D9 would practically guarantee that the highly advanced civilization would send a mission to unleash unimaginably deadly weapons on the Earth.

“Earth’s fate might be almost as dire even if EP1 fails,” Whiteton said. The powerful ETs might easily detect the weapon and destroy or evade it. Another possibility was that with the coup thwarted, the military could
divert the warhead or detonate it harmlessly in empty space. Either way, at the least, the attempted attack poisoned chances of peaceful and enlightened contact between different worlds. And it might prompt D9 to launch a devastating attack.

The Acting President could order the military to abort the attack by changing the warhead’s course in secret, Whiteton said, but two problems arose with that alternative. To begin with, Douthart had made it clear he wanted communications with the ETs to be honest and above board. Secondly, the change would not likely stay secret. As the Secretary of State had said, there was a chance the ETs had already detected the warhead. In addition, many people would be aware of the attack, among the plotters and numerous law enforcement officers; a leak was nearly inevitable.

The other option was to simultaneously get the military to abort the attack and NASA to assure the ETs that EP1 was launched by a renegade faction that had since been crushed.

“We must try to convince the aliens that America’s firm and official policy is peaceful, apologize to them, and ask them to continue contact as before—then hope they’re a tolerant species,” he said.

Whiteton ended his presentation abruptly, and after a few seconds the Cabinet members stirred to life again, talking among themselves, shuffling papers, and reaching for their water bottles or coffee cups.

Duggard asked if anyone else had other alternatives. National Security Advisor Raul Peterman slowly raised his hand and meekly said, “Punt,” drawing a few chuckles.

The remark was classic Peterman. He styled himself as the wise-ass, straight-talking skeptic in the NSC, willing to say or do anything. On one memorable occasion, as other Council members positioned their bottled water and coffee cups in front of them, Peterman placed an empty can of beer on the table. (“Did you bring enough for everyone?” the President had asked.)

Now he said the new Acting President should seriously consider aborting EP1 in secret. “It’s the only chance we have to avoid provoking any kind of retribution from the ETs, even if it is a small chance.”

Others favored telling the ETs about the attack. After a few minutes, the discussion grew heated, with several people trying to make their points at the same time.

“OK, OK,” Duggard said in a loud voice to put an end to the confusion. “Ms. Deputy Secretary of State,” she said to Susan Binski, “the President often turned to you at times like this for wise advice. What do you say?”

“Thank you for your kind words,” Binski said with increased sadness at the mention of the President. In a few moments, she said, “I don’t think we should start our relationship with beings from other worlds with a lie—especially not with one that is likely to be revealed, sooner or later.”

“Secretary of State Whiteton,” Duggard said, “you’ve laid out some options. What is your advice?”

“This is a classic dilemma,” Whiteton said, leaning forward in his chair. “Both options are flawed. I think the best chance we have of being true to our values and to President Douthart’s policy and to avoid damaged relations or an attack from the ETs is to be honest with them.”

“I agree,” said Duggard, stepping into her new role as Acting President. “That is what we will do.”

In a brief discussion, Duggard instructed Peterman to contact SAC and tell them to divert the course of EP1 to end the threat to D9. Whiteton would contact NASA and begin the delicate business of explaining the chaotic crisis and the aborted attack on D9 to the ETs.

The Secretary of State remained in the Situation Room to call Claire. There was no answer, and the concerned Whiteton called the director of Denver One, Blake Ochoa.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of Dr. Montague,” Whiteton said.

“She’s, she’s here,” Ochoa responded. “She’s very upset. She’s in her office. She can’t stop crying.”

Whiteton said he had a vital message to relay to D9, and told Ochoa to get the relevant experts together to meet him at Denver One in ten minutes. When Whiteton arrived at Denver One, he was taken to a secure
communications room to meet Ochoa, Ahmet, and Cindy. Less than a minute after Whiteton arrived, Claire entered the room. She kept her chin up and looked directly at the faces of the other people in the room, trying to show she could function normally. But she was unsteady on her feet and could not hide the despair on her face.

After the shooting, she’d entered the White House just as frightened-looking EMTs were leaving with a gurney holding the President, moving toward a waiting helicopter outside. They had stripped off Douthart’s bloody jacket, shirt, and t-shirt and bandaged the wound on his chest. A patch of blood had soaked through the bandages. Two IV bottles dangled on a metal frame above the gurney. Douthart’s head was turned slightly to the right, his jaw slack and his eyes closed. He looked more dead than alive.

Devastated, Claire was only intermittently able to communicate clearly. She used her government ID to get a policeman to drive her to Denver One.

When she got into her office, she sat with her head in her hands and said, “No, no, no, no, no.” She was thinking first about Douthart and the possibility he might die. She also feared she would lose this new, wonderful chance to get her life back after the devastation from the breakup with Sam’s father.

Some of the Denver One staff were surprised Claire was so emotional about the shooting of the President. But Ahmet remembered overhearing the affectionate and playful phone conversation Claire had with him, and Ochoa knew Claire well enough to guess that she and the President were involved. Now she had to summon all her strength to help deal with a national crisis.

Whiteton asked the NASA group to sit down and used his best authoritative, diplomat’s tone to explain the attack on D9 and the course of action decided on by Duggard.

All of them, including Claire, stared at him with eyes wide and mouths agape. After the Secretary of State finished, the Denver One group sat in stunned silence for ten to twenty seconds.

“Son of bitch,” Ahmet finally managed to mutter.

“First, Dr. Ricci, can you surmise how the ETs will react to this development?” The normally irrepressible Cindy looked blankly at Whiteton and
shook her head quickly as if to rearrange the shocking ideas inside it in a more understandable order.

She finally said, “You- you’ve got to understand … even when we were communicating normally with them, we didn’t really know for certain what their intentions were or what kind of ethics they had. Now…”

“If- if they were just faking peaceful intentions and planned all along to harm us, I guess nothing much has changed,” Ahmet said.

“If they’ve been honest with us,” Cindy said slowly, “maybe—we don’t really know—but maybe after we explain what happened, they’ll continue their peaceful mission. They monitor Earth’s broadcasts and electronic communications, so they already know there was a coup attempt today. And they will learn that it has failed.”

Whiteton gave them a copy of the memo he had presented to Duggard, with details of the option she approved. He asked them to go to another office, write up a draft message to D9, and bring it to him in ten minutes. He would stay in the secure communications room and get updated on counter-coup measures.

About fourteen minutes later, the NASA group filed back into the communications room.

“Sorry we’re a little late,” said Ahmet as he read a disapproving look on the Secretary of State’s face. “We got a message from D9, and it took a little time to put it together. Then we had to rewrite our message a bit to respond to them. Here’s their message: ‘Detected a political problem in America United States. Inform us regularly.’”

Ahmet showed Whiteton the proposed message for D9. After addressing the points in the memo, the message promised to contact D9 at least every half hour to inform them of the status of the coup and the government.

“That’s fine,” said Whiteton. “While you were out, Acting President Duggard called with a personal message reassuring D9 of our peaceful and open policy.” Use of the term “Acting President” seemed to momentarily suck all the air out of the room for the NASA officials.

“Please add that to your message and send it immediately,” he said, handing Ahmet the message, copied in the Secretary of State’s neat handwriting.
“She wants all future communications from D9 relayed directly and immediately to the White House. And she wants a direct, secure, encrypted line of communication set up with D9, to be used if needed.

“Be absolutely sure to relay D9’s next message immediately. Their response to finding out about the attack will be momentous.”

W
E
H
AVE
O
RDERS

W
hiteton went to
the White House to be available for Acting President Duggard when the next D9 message arrived. He got there in chilly autumn darkness at about 8:00 p.m., just nine hours after Fitzgerald laid the document with his demands on the President’s desk. The wait for the ETs stretched for agonizing hours as the Acting President and leaders at the UN and major nations around the world sent messages assuring the ETs that Earth’s policy toward them remained peaceful. Finally, after midnight, the aliens responded, but not in words.

The EP1 warhead disintegrated, according to a frantic call to the Acting President from the Defense Department. An investigation soon concluded that technology unknown on Earth pulled apart the atoms in the warhead to release electrons, neutrons, and other particles, but without unleashing the awesome power of nuclear fission, as Earth scientists might have expected. All that was left of the deadly warhead was a mist of subatomic particles floating through space.

Duggard and Whiteton received the shocking news in the Oval Office. After taking a couple minutes to put his thoughts together, the Secretary of State said, “I’d say the ETs are sending a dramatic message—even though we diverted the warhead, they’re enraged that we attacked them in the first place. And that they have a weapon more advanced than anything we could imagine.”

Duggard sent an urgent message over her new, secure line of communications with D9: “At this critical and potentially dangerous time, we need
more than ever to communicate fully. Our intentions are entirely peaceful. Please tell me if you want more information or explanations, and let me know your plans.”

More nerve-wracking hours passed with no message and no action from D9, which continued on a course that would put it in orbit around the Earth in three days. As the first rays of morning sun slipped through the columns at the entrance to the East Wing of the White House, Duggard received a message directly on the secure line from D9. It was cryptic, but ominous: “Attacked. We have orders to follow.”