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National Command Authority meets during the alien invasion
13 years ago
President: “All right then, are there any other questions?”
Chairman, JCS: “Yes ma’am. I have a question nobody else has asked yet.”
President: “Go ahead.”
JCS (tapping a fingertip on the table): “Why are they here?”
Sec HHS (sarcastically): “They’re invading our planet. Or hadn’t you noticed there’s a war on?”
JCS: “Yes sir, I had. But part of my job is to understand not just what the enemy is doing, but why he’s doing it. And I don’t. Nothing about the situation adds up.”
Sec HHS: “Does it really matter? They’re here. They’re des—”
President (putting out a hand, palm down): “What doesn’t add up?”
JCS: “Almost the only thing we know for sure about them is that they can reach Earth from another star system. If they can do that, we have to assume they can go pretty much anywhere they want. There are millions of other star systems out there, and most of them probably aren’t inhabited. Why not go there instead?”
Sec Def: “Maybe they’re doing that too and we just don’t know about it.”
JCS: “Could be, but it still doesn’t answer the question. With all that real estate available, they came here—to a planet with billions of people and enough industry and technology to put up a decent fight. We might be losing the war right now, but we’re tearing big holes in them.”
President (sourly): “That isn’t much consolation.”
JCS: “No, ma’am, but why bother launching a big, expensive, dangerous invasion? They could have stood off in orbit and dropped meteors on our cities until they bombed us back to the Stone Age, and there’s damn-all we could have done about it. They didn’t do that. And there’s more.”
Sec HHS: “For God’s sake—”
JCS (overriding the objection): “Some of the Pentagon’s analysts pointed out that it actually would be easier for them to reach the Asteroid Belt and the outer solar system. If they’re looking for raw materials, they could get all they wanted out there. We certainly couldn’t stop them.”
President (intrigued): “Is there really that much out there?”
JCS: “Yes, ma’am. Some of the analysts tell me there must be billions of tons of minerals in the Asteroid Belt—metals, rocks, crystals, you name it. The Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud are full of ice—water, methane, ammonia, all sorts of useful stuff. And all of it is in nice bite-sized chunks. No need to launch anything out of a gravity well with big rockets.”
Sec HHS (dismissively): “If that’s true, why aren’t we out there mining it?”
JCS (seriously): “Apparently some people have been asking that question for fifty years, sir, but nobody’s given them a good answer.”
Just once I want to see this scene in a movie.
Chairman, JCS: “Yes ma’am. I have a question nobody else has asked yet.”
President: “Go ahead.”
JCS (tapping a fingertip on the table): “Why are they here?”
Sec HHS (sarcastically): “They’re invading our planet. Or hadn’t you noticed there’s a war on?”
JCS: “Yes sir, I had. But part of my job is to understand not just what the enemy is doing, but why he’s doing it. And I don’t. Nothing about the situation adds up.”
Sec HHS: “Does it really matter? They’re here. They’re des—”
President (putting out a hand, palm down): “What doesn’t add up?”
JCS: “Almost the only thing we know for sure about them is that they can reach Earth from another star system. If they can do that, we have to assume they can go pretty much anywhere they want. There are millions of other star systems out there, and most of them probably aren’t inhabited. Why not go there instead?”
Sec Def: “Maybe they’re doing that too and we just don’t know about it.”
JCS: “Could be, but it still doesn’t answer the question. With all that real estate available, they came here—to a planet with billions of people and enough industry and technology to put up a decent fight. We might be losing the war right now, but we’re tearing big holes in them.”
President (sourly): “That isn’t much consolation.”
JCS: “No, ma’am, but why bother launching a big, expensive, dangerous invasion? They could have stood off in orbit and dropped meteors on our cities until they bombed us back to the Stone Age, and there’s damn-all we could have done about it. They didn’t do that. And there’s more.”
Sec HHS: “For God’s sake—”
JCS (overriding the objection): “Some of the Pentagon’s analysts pointed out that it actually would be easier for them to reach the Asteroid Belt and the outer solar system. If they’re looking for raw materials, they could get all they wanted out there. We certainly couldn’t stop them.”
President (intrigued): “Is there really that much out there?”
JCS: “Yes, ma’am. Some of the analysts tell me there must be billions of tons of minerals in the Asteroid Belt—metals, rocks, crystals, you name it. The Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud are full of ice—water, methane, ammonia, all sorts of useful stuff. And all of it is in nice bite-sized chunks. No need to launch anything out of a gravity well with big rockets.”
Sec HHS (dismissively): “If that’s true, why aren’t we out there mining it?”
JCS (seriously): “Apparently some people have been asking that question for fifty years, sir, but nobody’s given them a good answer.”
Just once I want to see this scene in a movie.
Don’t hold your breath. Anoxia is a fairly miserable way to die.
1. Why come to Earth?
2. Why invade rather than bomb?
The first question is easy to answer. Perhaps interstellar travel is difficult, short-ranged, or is restricted in some fashion, such as the jumplines in the novel The Mote in God’s Eye. Perhaps the aliens want to nip a potential threat in the bud—especially if their technology is similar enough to Earthly technology that we could make a good showing against them. There is a whole host of other possibilities; I could spin them out as long as I had breath.
The real challenge is the second question. Baron and I kicked it around briefly, but didn’t arrive at any definitive answers. The basic problem is that if the aliens aren’t able to bomb Earth flat, they certainly don’t have the resources to conquer and occupy a planet of seven billion human beings.
I don’t have any brilliant ideas other than to say that, whatever their motivation, it must include the desire or need to avoid turning Earth into a billiard ball. Maybe they want something specific, and don’t intend to occupy Earth in the long term—in other words, a gigantic raid of some sort. Maybe they want to turn Earth’s physical plant to their use for some reason; this is more plausible if their technology is close to ours. At that point, though, the question must be asked: wouldn’t they be better off trading rather than raiding?
invasion story. Depending on the [new] reason you come up with.
Plot would hinge on the aliens trying to keep their real reason secret for as long as possible.
A 'Potemkin invasion,' so to speak.
Meanwhile, every every spook agency on the planet is going total-batshit bananas trying to find
out why. Humour possibilities: mucho. Is there a fur angle here? Maybe.
Can't resist a bit of pimpage. Story: The Business. Came up with a new reason of my own (also
with a female President, by coincidence).
I smell red meat. Gnaw at it. Think you may have something juicy here.
FB.