10 January 2043
“Yes General, the report I sent you is real. It is not a joke. The timetable has been clarified within the last hour. We are looking at the invasion fleet nearing earth within forty hours. Yes. That is correct. No, we recommend that you abandon your military bases and heavy equipment. Yes… well… I know. We think they will bombard the military bases from orbit before landing near our cities. I know, but you can check your reports and see that we are doing the same. Thank you. Good luck to you to.”
Kyle switched off the phone and rubbed his eyes.
“Do you think he will do it, Colonel?” Major Kitch asked.
“I’m not sure Kitch, I hope so. General Moseved seemed to believe me, but whether he can convince the High Command in time will be the bigger question.” Kyle yawned and looked at the clock. “Looks like we are within the forty hour mark. Have you heard back from Langley yet? We need to have dependents moved from our installations within four hours.”
“Yes sir, everything looks to be good except for a glitch near Aviano. Apparently the local government is worried about why we are moving our people off the base. I guess the info hasn’t filtered down to that level yet,” Kitch said without looking up from her display.
“Ambassador Thomas will be breaking in on all networks in a few minutes, I guess they’ll learn with everyone else. Well, speak of the devil.” Kyle picked up the remote and turned the sound up on the TV panel on the wall. A news anchor was introducing Ambassador Thomas as he approached the podium at the UN.
“James Thomas is a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Great Britain and China. He is President emeritus of the Council of Foreign Relations and was the key negotiator for the U.S. in the settlement of the Indian war. He has called for an emergency broadcast, and he is speaking…”
“Thank you Secretary General, Ambassadors, members of the media, the people of the U.S. and the people of the world. A little over a year ago, the U.S. received communications from an alien race.” Thomas had to stop for a few seconds to quiet down the questions being shouted to him.
“Please, please, all of your questions will be answered, but it is vitally important that we get this information out to you. Due to circumstances beyond what we have time to explain at present, another alien race has declared war on us.”
At this point the cacophony was overwhelming. Even Kitch looked up from her screen. She looked at the pandemonium on the screen and then over at Kyle. “Looks like they are taking it pretty well, Colonel,” she said as she poured another cup of coffee.
“That they are, Kitch, that they are.”
A few minutes passed before Thomas was able to be heard clearly again. In fact he was shouting.
“Yes, we have a plan! Yes, we are trying to get information out! Here is the long and short of it, a race called the Iltia’cor have decided to invade Earth and enslave humanity. But we won’t go down! We will fight them where they land and drive them back to the stars. But we don’t have a lot of time. They will be here in less than two days and we need to prepare. Each government has been given information that will help them. The U.S. military will aid in any way we can. But as much as we must fight as a world, we must fight as individual nations, as individual cities, as individual families and as individual people.”
“Each of us, individually, has a stake in this. Each of us, individually, can make a difference. If you see an Iltia’cor come into your village, into your neighborhood, into your home, you need to make sure that he will not kill you, your children or your neighbors. We will not be conquered and we will not be taken!”
Hastily thrown together graphics started filling the screen as the media scrambled to be the first to put up the newly disseminated information.
Kyle muted the TV and started to lean back.
“Colonel Martin?” a voice behind him said.
Both Kyle and Kitch were up from their seats in a flash, completely surprised by the man standing behind them.
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Kyle asked roughly as he looked back at the closed door behind the stranger.
The man was dressed in dark slacks with a light blue dress shirt and a yellow tie. His light brown hair was slightly receding, and his nose looked like it might have been broken at some point in his life. He held his hand out to Kyle.
“My name is Franklin Smith,” he said as his hand remained unshaken. “I’m here to observe for now, but we’ll get to that in a moment.”
All three people in the room stood motionless for a few seconds.
“I’ll ask you again, Mister Smith, how did you get in this room?” Kyle asked with more than a touch of irritation in his voice.
“I walked in Colonel Martin. I walked past your guards and through that door. Does that satisfy your question?” Smith responded as he lowered his hand and sat down in a chair near the door.
Kyle and Kitch continued to watch him carefully as he settled in.
“Ambassador Thomas was truly inspirational, didn’t you think? I hope he was able to bring up that legendary human fighting spirit. We were concerned that fear might paralyze your planet into inaction and make the Iltia’cor invasion a simple event. But I’ve been studying humans for quite a while, and I think that you have a shot of making it at least uncomfortable for the Iltia’cor to hold your planet.”
Kyle looked at Kitch and nodded. They both sat back down and Kitch turned back to her screen.
“Mister Smith, I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” Kyle said coolly. “Can you tell me who you are and why you are so eager to be with me at this time?”
“I am an alien in plain language. The name of my people are the Pelod.”
Kyle watched impassively as Smith continued.
“We have been on your planet for around 200 years now, Colonel Martin. We have observed your people and your habits and honestly we felt that you were interesting, but no more than an anomaly of nature. Surely not a race that would have an impact on ourselves or any other major race. We were, apparently, very wrong. I’m sad to say that although we are scientifically much more advanced than you and our level of technology and engineering… well, let’s say that we are impressed by very little in terms of technology and engineering. But as I was saying, although we are more advanced than you, it did not occur to us that your lack of mosar was anything more than a weird aberration in your solar system.”
He shrugged uncomfortable for a second and his confident persona slipped just a moment. If Kyle hadn’t been looking for it, he would have missed it entirely.
“But it is important, isn’t it? Our lack of mosar.”
Smith looked over at Kitch, weighed some thought quickly, and turned back to Kyle.
“Yes, it’s important. It wouldn’t be except for the rest, but we can see now that it is very important.”
“Does it have to do with the weapon theories among the other races?”
“Very good, Colonel Martin, but it goes beyond that. One might be tempted to speculate that you would be invincible in combat against other forces, but that’s not true. Mosar based weapons are very expensive to run. They are common enough, but not every race can afford them in mass quantities…”
“If I can interrupt and ask a question that I have never had answered.”
”Please Colonel.”
“How did the Otina have mosar weapons then? Aren’t they a minor race, more a nuisance than a power? ‘Vagabonds of the Galaxy’, I think Lon told me once.”
“Indeed, but not quite. They are pirates and thieves for the most part, but that means they have money.”
“Who would sell them top of the line weapons then?”
“Why we would, Colonel. The Pelod. The arms and technology dealers of the Galaxy.”
Kyle glanced over at Kitch who was obvious in her attempt not to be listening. He looked back at Smith and started to speak. Smith spoke first.
“Because we have no home. The first system the Iltia’cor took in their history was Terti, our home world. Those who escaped found work as engineers, chemist and inventors. As it turns out, weapons were a very good seller and for the last 600 years we have plied our trade to every known race who had the resources to afford it.”
“Including the Iltia’cor?”
“Yes.”
“But they destroyed your home world.”
“Not destroyed, just... they took it over. While it’s true the people who live on Terti are under the oppression of the Iltia’cor, 600 years has allowed us to come to some understanding. We give the Iltia’cor a discounted price on our technologies we develop and they leave us be.”
“So you’re their useful slaves?”
Smith bristled at this and sat forward in his seat.
“Colonel Martin, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for your people. But I must warn you never to say that to another Pelod. Some may not have the restraint that I am showing.”
“So you do have some fight in you.”
Smith leaned back in his chair and smiled. “Yes Colonel Martin, I suppose we do, although staying in the background and letting business take care of itself is part of who we are now.”
“You mentioned that you have observed us for 200 years, but the Hedali said that no one would even come to this system because it was a ‘dead’ system, meaning we had no mosar. Why did the Pelod come here then?”
“For the iron, of course. Your system has an abundance of pure iron. Earth clearly has plenty, but you have entire asteroids of it in your system and Mars was an uninhabited planet with livable conditions and a solid iron core. We have had one of our major manufacturing facilities on Mars for the last 150 years.”
“Why Mars and not Earth?”
“Fear of discovery and disinterest I suppose. Your people have always been an oddity to us, but as we were engineers and craftsmen, your biology or society never really interested us.”
Kyle’s mind formed the words and he spoke carefully. “Were you responsible for the destruction of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Mars orbit a couple of years ago?”
Kyle noticed Kitch out of the corner of his eye. She obviously had no idea that the Shuttle was at Mars when it was destroyed.
“No Colonel Martin, we were not responsible for that. It was an Otina warlord named Jii who decided that he didn’t want his ship spotted by your vessel. Our people at our facilities were completely stunned by his reckless actions and there was even debate about whether to contact your people and let them know what happened. The Hedali communicating with you a few weeks later ended that decision as we really don’t want the Hedali to know we are in the area.”
“I’m sorry Mister Smith, this is a very stressful time for me and you are just pouring out information. If I seem a little scattered with my questioning, please forgive me. Why, exactly, did you not want the Hedali knowing you are in our solar system?”
“Not just did not, but do not. I came to you over the objections of many of my advisors. The Hedali are… weak. Not bad or evil or even contemptible, but weak. If they were questioned by any race who they felt threatened them, they would give any and all information immediately. It’s not their fault, really, they are scientist and knowledge seekers by their nature and culture. They have almost no military to speak of and even their few soldiers and military leaders are not held in high esteem. The repelling of an Otina attack on one of their ships had never happened before humans came into their existence. You may not realize it, but you, personally, are something of a Hedali legend now. The repelling of the Otina and then the killing of the Iltia’cor make you and Sergeant Ramirez the most whispered names on Kortit. If word got out that we were in your system, other races, like the Iltia’cor, would find reasons to come here and put pressure on us. We would likely have to move our base of operations and find another desolate system to work out of.”
“Then how did the Otina know you were here?”
“We invited them to come and buy directly from our base. They are steady customers, and as pirates and raiders, don’t want their locations known either.”
“How long have the Otina known of us?”
“Around 150 years. They are the ‘Greys’ of your UFO lore.”
“Cattle mutilations? Abductions?”
“Yes, Colonel, those things happened. The Otina were looking for something to sell. Some angle to work. Some would come and do experiments on your planet.”
“And you approve of this?”
“Not really any of our concern, Colonel.”
“So what is your concern?”
“Business. The Iltia’cor fleet is about to warp into this system. We will be shutting down all operations until they are gone. This means, of course, that we may be shutting down operations permanently if they are successful. The reason I came was on the off chance that they are not successful. If they fail to capture your planet, or if they find the cost to keep your planet too high, they will leave your system and we can begin work again on Mars. If that happens, we hope you will become a customer of ours. If enough of you are left alive.”
“So you just want to see what the outcome of the coming war is before you make your move?”
“Yes, Colonel.”
“Is there any technology that would help us before they arrive?”
“Yes, and I might be willing to sell it to you, but there would be no time to train any of your people on how to use it.”
“Then why show up at all? Why not just let the war happen and make your decision then?”
“Trust. If I had shown up after the war, assuming you win, you might think I was an agent of the Iltia’cor rather than a neutral observer.”
“Why shouldn’t I think you work for them now and you are only here to gain my trust?”
Smith seemed a bit taken aback by this. “I underestimated your cynicism, Colonel. I don’t know how to prove myself.”
Kyle smiled. “You may have just done that Mister Smith. If you had planned to trick me, you would have likely had an answer for that question.”
“You are a dangerous man Colonel Martin. I would very much like…”
“Colonel,” Kitch interrupted. “We have a signal from the Neptune probe. The Iltia’cor ships are entering the system.”
Kyle turned back to his station leaving Smith hanging in mid-sentence. “Keltner, this is Martin, what is the estimate?”
“Getting the figures back any second sir. Hold on, almost there. Good Lord… we are getting a reading of… 41 hours til Earth orbit.”
“Almost precisely what the Hedali predicted it would take once they hit our system.”
“Sir?”
“Go ahead Keltner.”
“That’s close to 100,000,000 kilometers an hour or close to 10% of the speed of light. What are we dealing with Colonel?”
“Nothing we can’t handle Keltner. You just let me know if there is any change.”
Kyle turned to Kitch and said “I have an idea, get the data we have from Neptune and get it to General Moseved. It might convince him and get the Russians moving quicker. Send it to The Hague, the UN, Beijing and Delhi as well.”
“Sir, this is classified data, do we have the authority to send it out?”
“I don’t know, but it’s my responsibility.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Colonel Martin, I know you are busy. I will return before the Iltia’cor start their attack. I’ll let myself out,” Smith said as he stood.
Kyle watched him leave and turned back to his screen.