Invasion

Air Vice Marshall Sir Arthur Darby stood and tapped the table lightly for attention.

This was an impromptu meeting called by the intelligence services of several countries and many of them had no idea of the purpose of the gathering.

Sir Arthur recognised this; he also recognised the need for urgency, “Ladies and Gentlemen. Might I have your attention for just a few moments?

“It is a rare moment when the heads of the military of the United Nations are called together under one roof.

“Yes, we are a large and disparate group but the time has come when the survival of Earth depends upon us putting our heads together and finding a solution to a problem of which we know almost nothing.”

There was a murmur around the table. Some of the sounds were of scoffing and others were more serious knowing, as many did, that Sir Arthur was a pragmatic man. If he categorically stated that a spade was a spade then there was no doubt that a spade was what the item in question certainly was.

“Please allow me, if you will, a little latitude here while I play you a tape.

“This tape was recorded only a few days ago at the Parkes Radio Telescope and the source confirmed two hours later from Sheshan, Shanghai.”

The Chinese delegate nodded assurance around the table.

“Would you wish to comment, General Chang Khong Sheu?” Sir Arthur invited the General to address the assembly.

General Chang half stood, smiled at everyone, and said only “Perhaps later. We have a little more information now,” he nodded and sat again.

Sir Arthur leaned over and pressed a button on the table in front of him.

Moments later a crackly voice speaking in precise Russian was heard over the speakers arranged around the room.

Several people at the meeting were shrugging and holding out their hands, clearly not understanding what was being said.

There was a widespread, and silent, ‘Oh!’ when the voice of an interpreter began speaking into their earphone translating the tape.

“People of Earth,” the tape quality was poor. The interpreters and the Russian-speaking people had to concentrate very hard.

“People of Earth. We have studied you very long and very hard. We have recorded and pored over your TV and Radio transmissions for several years. We recognise your disparity and your hungers.

“The end for you is near. We shall come and we shall conquer. You have no defence. You will crumble helplessly before us. Prepare. We are closer than you think.”

The tape ended.

Silence around the crowded room.

At last the representative from India, Rear Admiral Rajdeep Suvharoo, said, without standing, “This must be a hoax,” he looked directly at General Chang.

This time, General Chang stood up confidently. He looked down at his notes briefly and then spoke in clear, unaccented, English.

“Ladies and Gentlemen. Sheshan and Parkes have collaborated on this very closely. The astronomers in both these places have agreed that the signal comes from outer space. There is no hoax. This is not local traffic or some sort of transmission bleed from a local radio station.

“We are anticipating that they, whoever ‘they’ are, will transmit another message to us at some stage in the near future. At which time the observatory at Atacama, that they call ‘ALMA’, will also be monitoring the signal. They have been given the coordinates and have been placed at the disposal of the World’s defence forces.

“For those of you that are still cynical about this threat I should tell you that the Government of the People’s Republic of China takes it very seriously and has aligned itself with the United States and the EU in this matter.

“We also accede that Air Vice Marshall Sir Arthur Darby of the Royal Australian Air Force should take the Chair as Parkes Observatory was the first to detect and record the signal. I seek a second for that motion,” he sat down to a deeper silence.

General Tom Myers, USAF, stood, “As ranking officer here,” he looked around the room; nobody spoke, “I guess I should take over that post but I agree with General Chang that Sir Arthur should chair this defence meeting. He has the history of the thing.”

“Thank you, Tom. No doubt you and General Chang should deputise since we will, undoubtedly, need the technological might of the US and the knowledge and manpower of the Chinese forces,” Sir Arthur said quietly.

“Does anybody,” he continued, “have any ideas how to proceed?”

The silence was becoming oppressive.

“In that case, we should adjourn until we hear more. At present we have no information of how big the threat is or, indeed, what the threat itself is. The purpose of this meeting has been fulfilled in that you are now all aware of what has happened and that we shall, at some point in the future, need to put up some sort of united front.

This might be a good time to put our squabbles to one side and begin to focus on something bigger from outside.”

Time passed. Three weeks. Sir Arthur picked up the telephone. It was Jimmy Retter from Parkes. Sir Arthur sat up straight, listening intently.

“Does Sheshan have this? And ALMA? They do? You all say what?”

He put the ‘phone back down, thought for a moment, and then asked his PA to get General Myers on the ‘phone.

“Have you heard? From ALMA? Good. OK, I’ll start rousing the people this side if you get hold of NATO and your counterparts to the South. No, no need to meet--we can do this electronically, I’m sure. Yes. No worries.”

Sir Arthur flew up to Singapore where he met with Air Commodore Len Thomas, an old Rugby adversary from the New Zealand Air Force, and most of the Asian military leaders.

“General Chang. How nice to see you again. Sad circumstances, of course,” Air Commodore Thomas and General Chang exchanged pleasantries for a few moments before General Chang asked Sir Arthur why the Commonwealth Forces and NATO had chosen to appoint Air Force people to this threat when the thrust of the aggression would, almost certainly, be a ground war.

“Our Armies can’t look up, General,” Sir Arthur laughed, “Besides, we are anticipating an aerial offensive first.”

General Chang nodded, “We have time,” he observed, “for a good steak and chips first.”

“No noodles?” Len Thomas grinned at him.

Chang just smiled, paused, and then said, “Was that enigmatic enough?”

They chuckled and went into the ‘Raffles’ for lunch.

“Do we have a conference?” a Singapore Air Force Colonel spoke into a microphone in the middle of the table.

Confirmations came from all over the world. The Colonel checked them off on his master list. At last he nodded to Sir Arthur and sat down.

“Thank you, Colonel Chen. This voice is now Sir Arthur Darby speaking to you since we have, at present, no visuals set up.

“This meeting is just to inform those of you that have yet to hear, that there has been another message picked up by Parkes, Sheshan and ALMA.

“Rather than play you the tape I shall read out a transcript of the message and trust that you will accept that what I have here is an accurate translation. This time the message came in Swahili. Perhaps not the most commonly used language on the planet, with due deference to Major General Muteitha. It does give us a clue, however, that they have studied us closely.

“Here is the message: ‘People of Earth, as you call yourselves collectively. We observe your disunity. We note your dissimilar needs. We recognise your disparity of wealth. You will soon be conquered. You will soon subjugate yourselves to our will. There is no possibility of resistance.’

“The message ends there.

“The astronomers tell us that the speed of the signal coming towards us has been calculated and that the last known position is precisely pinpointed. The signal source yesterday was just beyond the orbit of Pluto. If it maintains its current velocity it will be with us in two weeks, or just less.”

An unidentified voice with a Spanish accent came over the speaker, “Do we know if this ship that heads our way is manned.  I use the word ‘manned’ advisedly. Perhaps it is a robotic ship such as we send into space. Sorry. Rodrigues, Mexico.”

“We have no idea of any information regarding the ship at present. Hubble has been directed towards the coordinates in the hope that it will see something early to give us a clue,” Sir Arthur said.

“Gudjonsson, Iceland. So we still know nothing apart from the threat?”

“That is correct.”

“Williamson, RAF. Is there any clue from its current trajectory where it may land?”

“None. The people at Sheshan have made a tentative estimate that it could be over Africa/Asia region when it arrives. Where it will land is another matter, of course.”

“Quite, quite. If we had a clue we could set up some sort of aerial defensive perimeter. At present we are waiting until the last minute before deploying any forces.”

“That is also correct. As I said just now, Mike, the possibility is that it could arrive over Africa and then land anywhere it bloody chooses.”

“Levon, Israel. We are still without intelligence.”

“Yes. This meeting is for your information only. We have nothing to act on other than be ready for anything. Needless to say, this is serious—I doubt these chaps will be throwing rocks.”

Len Thomas shifted uneasily in his chair knowing Sir Arthur was sailing a bit close to the wind.

“Anything else from anyone?”

Silence.

“No? Then we will go back home and await the next event.”

Very little happened that was useful to the Earth Defence Force, as they had titled themselves, over the next two weeks.

There were more transmissions in a similar vein all in different languages including, Hindi, Mandarin and Malay.

A few days after their last meeting, Hubble picked up a bright dot. Ground observatories trained their eyes on it; the light was inspected and analysed. They agreed it was some sort of exhaust glare. The astronautics people at NASA declared that it was a space ship firing retro rockets to slow down for Earth orbit.

The astronomers confirmed that the ship was slowing down and new forecasts for arrival time and location were calculated.

“How big is it?” Sir Arthur asked Tom Myers.

“We don’t know,” General Myers admitted, “I guess if it’s an invasion force it’s going to be pretty hefty.”

March Fourth. The alien ship formatted on the Shuttle. The Shuttle crew said that it gave no indication of observing them, it just sat there for a few hours and then moved off.

The astronomers could now measure it. Most people with reasonable binoculars could see it.

March fifth. It broke orbit and settled down to Earth in Sri Lanka. At a kilometre long and just over half that wide it filled the airport at Colombo.

Defence forces rushed to the site but it was clear that the response time was going to be inadequate.

First on the scene was the local representative, Group Captain Kularatne.

He had a small squad of military with him armed with light weapons; the heavy artillery was still on its way from the North.

Fingers tightened on triggers as a small hatch opened up in the front of the ship. A set of steps, only four deep, extended to the ground.

Two buxom, and underclad, beauties bounced down the steps and arrayed themselves either side.

A braying of trumpets and a man in a loud suit and louder tie appeared at the top of the steps.

He flung his arms wide and announced in perfect Tamil, “Lucky, lucky people of Earth. I am here to bring you irresistible offers from ‘NovaToy’ the Galactic Novelty Company...