Theogony 1: Janissaries (33 page)

Seen up close, the aliens appeared even shorter than they
had from further away, and their larger heads were even more noticeable. His
cameraman called it correctly; the aliens had six fingers on each hand.
Reaching the President of the United States at the end of the receiving line,
they moved to stand next to the podium. Davies laughed to himself as he saw the
one flaw in the proceedings. If the aliens had to use the podium, no one would
be able to see them; it was as tall as they were.

As the people moved back to the podium, the soldiers
shouldered their weapons as one, and then they moved to stand behind the heads
of state. Once again, they stopped at the same time, brought their rifles to
their sides and assumed the position of parade rest. The first person in line,
Lieutenant Paul Train, came and stood next to the president at the podium.

“On behalf of the governments represented here,” said the
American president, “as well as the rest of humanity, I would like to formally
welcome Brontes, Steropes and Arges to Planet Earth. These three individuals
represent the Psiclopes race from the Alliance of Civilizations. They were
stranded here and asked for our help in making it back to their planet. The
nations represented here all volunteered to help, and the soldiers that you see
are some of the troops that accompanied them on their journey home.”

“Unfortunately, they were not able to make it back to the Psiclopes’
home world. A number of other, hostile, alien civilizations stand between us and
their home planet, and they weren’t able to find a way around them safely. This
is the reason we need to form a world government. The Alliance of Civilizations
among the stars has failed. This Alliance held the galaxy together for tens of
thousands of years, watching over developing planets and protecting them from
hostile, aggressive races that would either seek to control the weaker races...or
worse.” He didn’t elaborate on what ‘or worse’ meant, but Davies could
immediately think of several things that were worse. “Just as with the fall of
the Roman Empire on Earth, the end of the Alliance has left many of these races
without any sort of oversight, and many of them are running wild throughout the
galaxy, raping and pillaging as they go.” He paused to let that sink in.

“At this time, we do not believe that any of them know that
we exist. This is our chance to come together, to pool our resources as a
civilization, and to erect the defenses we need to ensure our collective safety
for when they
do
find us. This is why we need a world government; we
need it to guide our Terran society and begin building the defenses we will
need in the coming years.”

He indicated Night, who stood at attention next to him,
looking every bit like the elite officer he was. “We already have a cadre of soldiers,
like Lieutenant Paul Train here, who has been out to other planets and has successfully
fought some of these hostile races. We will use the skills that the soldiers
gained to train a larger planetary military, united against our exosolar
enemies.”

“Our forces also brought back alien technology that we will
use to manufacture the things that our planet needs to defend itself. Many of
you will remember Lieutenant Shawn Hobbs, who was one of our heroes in the war
last year. Now Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, he personally led the capture of this
equipment from a planet light years away. This device is large enough to allow
the construction of the space fighters that you can see attached to the front
and back of the starship on the runway.”

Calvin sighed as people patted him on the back, high above
the ramp in the airfield’s control tower. Having flown F-18s at NAS Oceana for
several years before the war, he was familiar with the field and knew where the
best place would be to watch the ceremony. He had volunteered to coordinate the
timing of the
Vella Gulf’s
entry, which was best done at the tower. The
president had told Calvin that he was going to mention Calvin’s name, as it was
important for the American public to have people they could look up to in these
trying times. The president had used the term ‘hero,” but Calvin really didn’t
see himself as a hero. He was just someone at the wrong place at the wrong
time, who made the best of a bad situation. Hell, he had gotten into that
position by being shot down, which was hardly heroic.

“As you can probably guess,” President Jacobs continued, “there
are many things that need to be worked on simultaneously, and we need to get back
to planning how we’re going to do all of these things. Before we do, though,
the leader of the Psiclopes delegation, Arges, would like to say a few words.”

Calvin knew that they were a few very carefully coordinated
words, to say the least.

As Arges stepped forward to the podium, Night reached behind
the podium and pulled out a stool that had been hidden under it. Bob Davies
nodded, impressed. They hadn’t missed it. Arges stepped onto the stool and
addressed the reporters. “Thank you for the nice welcome, President Jacobs, and
for the efforts of all of the civilian leadership assembled here. Although we
didn’t make it back to my world, we did learn many things about the state of
political affairs that currently exists in the galaxy. As President Jacobs
indicated, it isn’t good.”

“I do, however, believe that there is hope for your
civilization, if you all come together and work toward the common goal. There
cannot be any room for division among you. You must put aside all of the things
that previously divided you and begin working immediately to defend yourselves.
Although there are only three of us, we pledge to give the Terran government
all of the help and support we can. Our future is now aligned with yours. As
the American statesman Ben Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, ‘We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang
separately.’ Thank you.”

Arges moved back to the side of the podium, and Night slid
the stool back in so that the president could address the crowd again. “Ladies
and Gentlemen, today is a monumental day, one that you will remember for the
rest of your lives. It is the day where all of the people of this planet began
to come together to ensure the safety of our race. Those of us here encourage
all of the other nations to join us at the United Nations building in one week,
where we can begin hammering out the details for how this will work. Details of
the treaty are being sent to every head of state in the world.”

“While we invite every nation in the world to come, we
understand that not every nation may want to participate. Please understand that
while all are welcome, no nation or group will be allowed to stand in the way.
If you are a nation or organization that means harm to one of the participants,
be aware that you will incur the wrath of all, and it will fall upon you
swiftly. If you are in the business of terror, you will either get out of it
now, or we will find you and put you out of business ourselves. We do not have
time to waste on distractions; they will be put down ruthlessly. I look forward
to seeing all nations at the conference. Thank you.”

With that, all of the Terran leaders boarded the bus, along
with the Psiclopes and the Terran Space Force soldiers. The bus drove back to
the spaceship, where the entire group got off the bus and boarded the
spaceship. The ramp went up after everyone was aboard. As it shut, the
spaceship lifted and soared into the sky, rapidly becoming a tiny silver dot
which was just as quickly lost to sight.

The Channel 13 cameraman brought his camera back down to Bob
Davies, who said simply, “And there you have it, we have made contact with
extraterrestrials and have begun preparations to form a new, world government
that will deal with the hostile aliens that are roaming the galaxy. Our lives
have forever changed...and I can only hope that it will be a change for the
better.” Bob Davies had always been a master of understatement.

“No Mr. President, we aren’t going to be able to defend this
system with what we brought back on our first mission,” said Calvin. “It will
help, but if the Drakuls come through the stargate in force, we aren’t going to
be able to stop them. We’re going to have to go back out and look for
additional aid.”

“What about going through the other stargate?” asked the
president. “Maybe there is help in that direction.”

“There may be,” replied Calvin, “but if we go through it and
find the Drakuls, they are going to come find Earth. I don’t think we can risk
it. There are still other areas we haven’t explored through the stargate we
went through; I would suggest we continue to look there.”

“I agree Mr. President,” said the secretary of defense. The
president looked up to see all of his advisors nodding.

The president nodded as well. “Well, let’s get to fixing the
Vella Gulf
and replacing the people and equipment lost in the first
mission. We need to get you back out there before the Drakuls show up at our
door.”

“Yes sir,” said Calvin. “We’re already working on it.”

“The bottom line,” said Irina Rozhkov, finishing her report,
“is that this
is
real. The Americans
were
contacted by aliens.
The Americans
did
go to space with them and
did
engage in combat
with several groups of aliens. I was with them and fought alongside them. The
Americans now have two replicators that will allow them to make weapons and
defensive systems beyond anything that we could field in the next hundred years.
The one platoon that the aliens upgraded, even with the losses it incurred on
its mission, could probably wipe out all of our armies combined; that’s how
good they are. Everything they’ve said is the truth, as near as I can tell.”

“Are you sure that you have not been in contact with them so
much that you have lost your objectivity?” asked the KGB Chairman. “I have
never had an agent come into my office and say so many positive things about
the Americans. I think you may have been converted by their capitalistic
rhetoric after being exposed to it for so long.”

“No sir,” replied Rozhkov, “I remain a proud daughter of
Mother Russia. I cannot tell you if all of the underlying reasons that the
Americans have given for what they’re doing are true, but I
can
tell you
that our world is in serious danger. There are many races in the galaxy that
would consider us nothing more than a light snack. We have to protect our
planet from them if we are going to protect Mother Russia. We
must
join
them.”

“Make no mistake,” said the KGB Chairman, “we
will
join
this new polity. The Americans now have long-range, hand-held weapons that hit
at the speed of light with little regard to distance or weather conditions.
They are able to shoot our missiles out of the sky with their spaceship without
any conscious effort. And...even if you take all of that away, they now hold
the planet’s orbitals. All they have to do is drop rocks on our heads, and they
could kill us at their leisure. If it came to a contest between our two nations
right now, we would lose. Badly. We couldn’t even use our nuclear weapons on
them.” He blew out his cheeks in a sigh. “The only realistic option is for us
to join them. If we do that, we have the ability to get in on the ground floor
of this new world government. That gives us the opportunity to affect policy
from the inside and to infiltrate the new organization thoroughly.”

He looked up and smiled. “The Americans have a saying, ‘if
you can’t beat them, join them.’ Based on what you’ve told me, we’re going to have
to join them to beat them.”

# # #
# #

The following is an

Excerpt from Book 2 of the
Theogony
:

When the Gods Aren’t Gods

___________________

Chris Kennedy

Available
from Chris Kennedy Publishing

April,
2014

eBook
and Paperback

Master Chief O’Leary kicked in the door of the East End
apartment and was greeted by a hail of bullets that hit him in the chest,
despite his invisibility. “Damn it!” he grunted, as the impact of 12 bullets
drove him back into the opposite wall. While the terrorists focused on O’Leary,
other members of the platoon crashed through the back windows of the 4th floor
apartment, taking the terrorists by surprise. The fight was over in less than a
minute, the terrorists dead and Ryan with an expanding bruise on his chest.
Although the suit stopped the bullets, as advertised, it did nothing to absorb
the impact. Someone else gets to kick in the door next time, he vowed.

Ryan surveyed the dead. No prisoners were taken, but then
again, the terrorists hadn’t given them the chance...and the soldiers hadn’t
really wanted to take any in the first place. The terrorists had nothing they
needed, and to have to go through the motions of a trial was
just...inconvenient. Besides, the terrorists shot first, and to come back to
London when they were already wanted there was just stupid. Ryan shrugged. Just
another example of Darwin’s rule of natural selection; they were obviously too
stupid to live.

Scattered among the remains of the bomb making materials, he
found the jihadi bomb maker Samantha Lewthwaite, the notorious ‘White Widow’
that terror agencies in the U.S., U.K. and Kenya had been looking for since the
Nairobi shopping mall terror attack in 2013 that killed more than 70 people. A
key member of Somalia’s al-Shabaab militants, her career as a terrorist was
over, courtesy of three laser blasts to her chest. Good riddance, he thought.

Sirens wailed as the local police made their appearance.
Ryan looked at his watch. If the shuttle wasn’t late coming down, they could
still make it back to Moon Base Alpha in time for Happy Hour at the new bar
that had just opened.

Life was good.