Red Dot: Contact. Will the gravest threat come from closer to home than we expect? (26 page)

In the White House, Duggard and other top leaders turned to the nearly impossible task of dealing with multiplying crises around the world. With the ETs unveiling an unstoppable weapon in response to being attacked, and US leadership and stability damaged by the bloody attempted coup, fear and uncertainty threatened to overwhelm government, civil, and religious institutions. In the US, government support began to fall from a peak immediately after the coup, and extremists had already become more bold.

Waiting in the Oval Office for Duggard was the head of the powerful US central bank, Federal Reserve Chairman Franklin Yamata.

“Franklin, usually it’s a pleasure to see you, but I have to admit you are about the last person I’d want to see now,” Duggard said.

“Ms. Acting President, I’m afraid after this meeting you may never want to see me again,” said Yamata.

“Something tells me we’re going to talk about the bond market,” Duggard said warily. Movements in the 15-trillion-dollar market set the direction for the global economy and influenced national policies. A major breakdown would be a disaster.

“Afraid so,” said Yamata. “And the stock market.”

He had just spent an anxious twenty-four hours consulting with other global government and corporate leaders. Banks and exchanges around the world had already agreed to limit daily sales of stocks and bonds and withdrawals of cash. The limits were unpopular, but generally accepted as a way to avoid a complete financial system collapse.

The bond market, especially US treasuries, held up fairly well. US bonds were a favored haven for investors spooked by uncertainty, and D9 provided a large dose of that. Buying by investors seeking safety in bonds had therefore largely matched panic selling by bondholders desperate to get cash before the ETs began to orbit Earth.

Now, though, the bond market verged on collapse, along with stocks and the banking system. With D9 just days away, the possibility that ETs would avenge the attack by the US, and the attempted coup in Washington, D.C. that left the President gravely wounded, turned any uncertainty into stark terror. Leaders feared that desperate investors would max out their daily limit on bank withdrawals, and sellers of bonds and stocks would find virtually no buyers willing to part with cash. To prevent a financial collapse, bankers and other traders planned to severely cut daily trading and withdrawal limits until the ET threat was resolved. Starting this afternoon, US Eastern Daylight Time.

Duggard closed her eyes for a few seconds, and her body went limp. She had known she’d have to take some action to protect financial markets, but the consequences of Yamata’s proposal were frightening. People didn’t like it when someone fooled with their money.

“We’ve drawn up a list of actions we urge you to take,” Yamata said. “It includes coordinating large bond and stock purchases by central banks, an extensive public relations campaign to inform the public about the plan, and…” He paused for a few seconds. “And mobilizing federal and local law enforcement agencies to deal with increased unrest.”

“All right,” said Duggard after taking a deep breath. “Let’s go over the plan before I submit it to our Financial Policy team, to work out details with Congress.”

At the same time, a core group designated by Duggard sat in the Situation Room, chatting among themselves.

“Message up,” said Claire, interrupting the casual conversation and causing a gust of activity as everyone turned to focus on the monitor.

“We understand suspects are considered innocent in your system. We are worried about uncertainty over convictions and over the sentences. We can
devise technology that will not harm the accused but will determine guilt or innocence with certainty. Will you use it, or at least allow us to use it for our own records?

“Sentencing—we don’t want vengeance, but we want the punishment to be onerous enough to warn others this is a gravely serious crime and to be a deterrent. Your record on verdicts and sentencing is not consistent. I advise you we hope to reach a peaceful solution in place of our standing orders calling for a limited, but lethal response.” End message, reliability: high.

Following the message, as Claire had requested, Ahmet transmitted the entire transcript, and line after line of exchanges scrolled down the Situation Room monitor, seemingly without end.

Exclamations rippled around the room. Even Claire shook her head in surprise. The group sat in stunned silence for several seconds after the transmission ended, trying to digest both the ETs’ concerns and the long, tortured process needed to put the message together.

“My God,” National Security Advisor Peterman finally said. “This is going to be even harder than I thought. It’s almost like the ETs want us to turn the plotters over to them—or else. And negotiating with them through that static is much harder than we realized. Get everyone—the Acting President, Whiteton, everyone—back in here.”

At Denver One, Ahmet and David were well into another series of dialogues. Again, the work was crisp and efficient, with steady progress. But at both ends of the balky line of communication, frustration and unease grew as the difficulties in the negotiations and the high stakes loomed larger and larger.

Meanwhile, Duggard and Whiteton were looking at the Situation Room monitor, and the latest message, with the same dismay Peterman and the others had felt.

“We have a very, very small window of opportunity here to carry out a peaceful and enlightening meeting with another world,” Whiteton said. “If
we don’t meet their conditions they will go on with their ‘lethal’ response, and we’ll be blood enemies. But what if their conditions fundamentally undercut our own values or interests? Say they wanted to choose our leaders rather than allowing us to elect them? We might meet their conditions but so compromise our own values that we can never form a constructive relationship.”

“Already, already Mr. Secretary,” Chief of Staff Tejeda said, “some of Acting President Duggard’s public support is drifting into a movement insisting that we don’t ‘cave in to the aliens.’ It’s getting a lot of push from our usual antagonists in the media and Congress.”

“Well, a fruitful meeting of two worlds is a unique and noble goal, I know that,” said Peterman. “But what worries me is that they say a lethal response would be limited. What do they mean by ‘limited’? They have the technology to do whatever they want. Look what happened to that warhead. It could be a slaughter.”

Pandemonium broke loose in the room; everyone wanted to comment and no one wanted to listen. Eventually, the Council noticed Claire frantically waving her right arm in the air and repeating, “Quiet! Please, quiet. Quiet!” When the uproar settled down, she spoke into the microphone on her earpiece.

“Slow down, Ahmet. Take a breath. Repeat again.” Claire bowed her head and listened intently for five or six seconds, looked up at the Council members, and said, “The ET just sent an urgently important message. Ahmet is putting it on the screen now.”

Attention instantly swung to the monitor, where the message appeared: “This communication is too slow and too inexact. The issue is too important. I am going down.”

O
UTRAGEOUS AND
R
EASONABLE

U
nrestrained cries of
excitement, shock, and wonder gave way after a minute or two to a flood of questions: “Going down? How? When? Where?” “Should we make special preparations for the ET’s safety?” “For our own?” …. Wasn’t the ET worried he might be harmed or captured once he got to Earth?

Haltingly, the breathless Council members worked through Ahmet to arrange details with the ET. Ahmet first rather sheepishly mentioned that their contact was a male and used the name “David.” He would arrive at 7:58 the next morning, Saturday, October 15, in a secluded area of nearby Andrews Field, a military air base, on a shuttlecraft that could not be detected by radar or other usual measures. In his specially designed “Earth-suit,” he would be safe in our environment and humans would be safe in his presence. He would need no materials for his sustenance or comfort. David also listed requests regarding investigation of the attack on D9, including the right to meet and interview the coup leader.

After the communication with the ET, National Security Council members babbled among themselves like a room full of excited children. “Do you think he looks like the Roswell ET?” “Will we be able to take pictures of him?” He probably wasn’t concerned about being harmed or held hostage because of his superior technology, they concluded. Only gradually did talk shift to actual preparations for David’s arrival.

The first main topic was the request to meet with the leader of the coup. With General Clark shot dead by another plotter, that would be former
Secretary of Defense Donner Fitzgerald, who had confessed to his part in the coup attempt. Duggard had asked Attorney General Smythe Taggart to start attending the meetings to advise them on legal issues surrounding the prosecution of accused coup members. And Taggart had helped craft the message to D9, explaining what to expect from the legal system and how far the government could go to meet the ETs’ demands.

“Of course we can’t just cart Mr. Fitzgerald out to meet the ET, against his will,” said Taggart. A short woman with thinning white hair, she looked older than her fifty-five years and spoke slowly and carefully in public. But she still exuded a restless energy, as if she’d prefer to be out engaged in her favorite hobby—trap shooting.

“Mr. Fitzgerald still voices his opposition to administration policy toward the ETs, but is cooperating with investigators. Whether he would agree to meet with—David … is that what we call him?—is unknown. His lawyer certainly might object, and if he agrees, will insist on conditions to protect his client. Lawrence Edson, God bless him, is a stubborn bulldog of a lawyer.”

The Council agreed that to keep the arrival of David as secret as possible, investigators would schedule an apparently routine meeting with Fitzgerald and his lawyer at 8:00 the next morning. Taggart would meet privately with Fitzgerald and Edson at that time and ask if they would meet with David. If they agreed, and Taggart accepted their conditions, all three would be whisked to Andrews Field for the meeting. If all went well, they could get to the meeting with David around 9:00 a.m.

Discussion turned again to whether the government should compromise its legal process to avoid potentially devastating retaliation, and if it did give in, how far could it go?

Duggard settled the discussion, at least for the time being. “We will uphold the letter and spirit of our laws when we meet with the ET. If … if that is not enough to prevent a lethal attack, we’ll make some concessions around the edges. But if we can’t hold on to our principles and still reach a peaceful solution, we’ll have to brace ourselves as best we can.”

For the rest of the afternoon, most discussion involved detailed preparations for the meeting. The first order of business: Who would meet David?

In addition to his statement that he wanted to meet the leader of the coup, the ET also said he expected to meet the top leaders of the United States. But the risks of sending the Acting President and other top leaders jumped out.