“So you’ve been waiting all this time?” Turcotte asked.
“Yes.”
“Why haven’t you done something before now?”
“Our charter and authorization for action under the presidential directive is very specific. Our jurisdiction is only over live contact with alien life.” “And now?” Turcotte asked.
“Now, since live contact is pending, we must act.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure,” Zandra said. “Our course of action has not been decided, because we don’t have enough information. It might be to welcome Aspasia and the Airlia with open arms or it might be to oppose him with everything we can muster in a fight to the death.” She turned to the communications console. “I’d like to bring my superior, Lexina, in on this.”
Neither Turcotte or Duncan objected, so she flipped on a speaker. “Lexina, this is Zandra. I have Dr. Duncan and Captain Turcotte here with me.”
A woman’s voice came out of the speaker. “Captain, you have the information we need to make a very important decision. The foo fighters, which Aspasia controls, are certainly acting in a hostile manner, but before committing to a course of action we’ve been waiting to hear what you found in Qian-Ling. What did the guardian there tell Professor Nabinger?”
“Nabinger was convinced that Aspasia was coming to Earth to take the mothership and destroy the planet,” Turcotte summed it up succinctly. “The Qian-Ling guardian reversed the story he got from the Easter Island one: Aspasia was the rebel and it was the Kortad, or Airlia police, under someone named Artad, that saved the human race and the planet.”
“Which do you believe?” Lexina asked.
“Neither.”
Zandra’s eyebrows rose over her sunglasses. “You think we should do nothing?” “I didn’t say that.”
Dr. Duncan spoke for the first time. “Why do you believe neither, Mike?”
“I don’t have any evidence. We’re getting conflicting stories, and for all we know they could both be bullshit. The bottom line is that Earth is our planet. These Airlia came here, set up shop, blasted Atlantis back into the ocean when they couldn’t keep their act together, and have been dicking with us every once in a while for millennia.
“Everyone’s made a big deal about Aspasia, saying he didn’t interfere with our growth as a species, but as far as I can tell he didn’t help either. None of the Airlia did. I mean, this isn’t Star Trek — it’s not like the Airlia have a prime directive not to interfere.
“Let’s look at what both sides admit to: Aspasia’s guardian says he blasted Atlantis and left the guardian on Easter Island, which is controlling the foo fighters right now; Artad’s guardian says he blasted Atlantis, and left the guardian computer in Temiltepec that took over Gullick; plus, it says he left a nuke in the Great Pyramid, and I think we have to assume got the Great Pyramid built in the first place, and I’d sure say that affected a whole bunch of humans, not to mention all the poor human slobs who died building the section of the Great Wall simply to spell HELP.
“We know foo fighters accompanied the Enola Gay and watched the U.S. atom-bomb Japan; well, the human race could have used some help there. Or many other times in our history. They didn’t leave us alone but they also didn’t help us. Why should we think that’s changed now? I think we can safely assume that Aspasia is going to be looking out for his own interests, not ours. So the question is, why is he coming back now? What’s different?”
The room was quiet as everyone turned over the events of the past week in their minds. Lisa Duncan spoke first. “The guardian at Temiltepec was moved and then destroyed.”
Turcotte nodded. “You were right in a way about the sphere being a doomsday device. According to Nabinger, that guardian was responsible for the ruby sphere in the Rift Valley.
“It could release the sphere,” Turcotte said, “into the chasm and an explosion that deep would start a chain reaction that could destroy the planet. When they took the guardian out of Temiltepec, Majestic made the sphere vulnerable,” Turcotte said. “That’s what’s different and that’s what Aspasia wants.
“Also remember they blew Viking out of the sky over Mars so we couldn’t see what was going on. The foo fighters destroyed the Pasadena and killed all those men on board. And that happened after Aspasia was awake. Taking aside what the different guardians have said, I think the Airlia haven’t exactly been the friendliest and most peaceful encounter we could have for first live contact. And now they’re coming here in six ships that certainly don’t look like ET’s ship waving a white flag of peace.”
Turcotte stared at the others inside the bouncer. “We either roll over on our stomachs like a beaten dog and hope they scratch our belly and not blow our brains out or we fight them. But there’s no way of absolutely knowing which is the right course until it’s too late.”
Lexina’s voice filled the short silence that followed. “You are correct. Our charter that was signed by President Eisenhower directs us to take whatever means necessary to oppose an alien landing if there is not absolutely clear-cut evidence that the aliens are benevolent. Thus, for STAAR, our course of action is clear. We oppose Aspasia.”
Turcotte rubbed the stubble on his chin. He knew Kelly Reynolds would be blowing a gasket if she could hear this conversation. He also kept unvoiced his suspicion that STAAR wasn’t all it pretended to be either. Take things down in the order that they’ll kill you, was the maxim he’d had beaten into him in the mud at Fort Benning and the forests of Fort Bragg.
And right now Turcotte knew that Aspasia was what had to be stopped first. He’d deal with STAAR when he could.
But Kelly Reynolds had been listening. She looked up at Major Quinn. The speaker that had played the intercepted conversation sat on the tabletop between them. Quinn had had the NSA zero in on any communications between Scorpion Base and anywhere in the world. It had not been hard to piggyback the communications that were routed through a MILSTAR satellite. Kelly had returned to the Cube twenty minutes ago.
“They can’t,” Kelley said as the radio went dead. “Aspasia has said he is coming in peace. We have to believe him.”
“Tell that to the men on the Pasadena,” Quinn said.
“They fired first!” Kelly yelled.
“Yes, they did,” Major Quinn acknowledged. “But the foo fighters didn’t have to destroy the sub. They could have disabled the torpedoes and gone about their business.”
“That was just an automatic response!” Kelly reached out and grabbed Quinn’s arm. “Please. Give me a bouncer. Let me get to Easter Island and the guardian before things go too far.”
Quinn had a lot of other things on his mind at the moment, and they would be easier to accomplish without Reynolds looking over his shoulder. “Take Bouncer 6. I’ll alert the pilot.”
“Space Command has picked up a foo fighter heading in this direction,” Lexina’s voice rang out to those inside the bouncer. “We are going to have to evacuate our position here. There also seems to be some activity from the foo fighters over the Rift Valley compound. I think Aspasia is showing his hand. Good luck!”
Some activity was a large understatement.
Two U.S. Navy F-14’s from the George Washington had been on station fifty miles away, shadowing the two fighters. They were the first to get destroyed, as the foo fighters raced at them, disabling their engines. The fighters then turned for the compound. They crisscrossed the skies overhead, a tightly focused beam of golden light coming out of each, destroying the helicopters that were on the ground, blasting those that tried to take off.