Supreme Allied Headquarters - War Room:
I stepped into the heart and soul of our Allied Operations, an extremely high-tech command center that had a lot of low-tech touches. We’d seen our “gee whiz” fail before, so for every high-tech ‘gizmo,’ there was a low-tech back-up system. We no longer used the HF, UHF, VHF, or FM radios for communications. Now it was all LF, VLF, and ELF systems. Even the Commercial Radio stations were transmitting on AM again, with FM radio almost a complete thing of the past. Even those who weren’t “worried” about the Gomer threat anymore were still very reluctant to send a signal on an FM or higher frequency radio. Internet radios and television were the thing now, assuming the internet was working properly, and so there was a resurgence of entertainment in the post war world. My being old school, I personally preferred the telephone for the more serious conversations, and so did our President.
“General?”
“Yessir, Mr. President?”
“What is your recommendation as to the threat level?”
“Sir, I would have to assess it as high, and I’ve alerted all major commands and senior commanders to be on alert accordingly at alert level yellow.”
“Do you have a recommendation about evacuation of the cities?”
“I don’t have enough information to answer that yet, sir, but given our history, I would seriously consider maybe moving key personnel to more hardened facilities, while putting the public on some sort of alert.”
“I just hate to cause a panic for no reason.”
“I agree, Mr. President. Just as an idea, maybe you could treat it like a weather type event. Maybe make evacuation non-mandatory, like with an oncoming hurricane, at least for the next 12 to 24 hours. Then as the objects move closer, make it mandatory for the final 12 hours. It might move the bulk of the population out to safer ground, while the infrastructure can manage it. If you wait until the last minute, then the roads will be jammed, and panic will really set in.”
“Okay, it is an idea. I’ll talk it over with the cabinet. Can I quote you as making that recommendation?”
“Sure! Marty, you can quote me whenever you want, but if you do, make sure it starts with ‘hey you assholes, listen up.’”
“Funny! I knew giving you the 5th Star would make you the consummate smartass!”
“Sorry, Mr. President, but you know most of those guys don’t want to hear from me. I’ve been accused of being ‘Chicken Little’ one too many times.”
“Yeah, I know, but if you will recall, I was the ‘Chicken Little’ last time around.”
“Yessir, and you saved more than a few lives, to include mine, for those of us who listened.”
“Bingo! My point exactly. Now get to work, get the latest intelligence, and then be prepared to brief when I get there.”
“Yessir, and I can assume you’ll be bringing the key players with you, so we will open up your new facilities and have security teams prepared to receive you.”
“Roger that, and we should have everyone out and on the way to you within the next 6 hours.”
“Can do, sir! Your new home will be ready, and don’t forget to bring the grandkids.” With that, the President chuckled and broke the connection. I turned to get the staff fired up, briefed, and moving in the right direction. Within minutes, our first war briefing in three years began in earnest. As Colonel Feldman briefed the course, speed, and anticipated progress of the new ships, Dr. Abramson and Dr. Clarkson entered the room. Dr. Clarkson sat in rapt attention studying the track of the objects, their movement patterns, and course projections. As one of the few people on Earth who had experienced first-hand the Gomer ship and technology, his opinions would be vital to our understanding and to identifying the proper tasks we would need to accomplish over the next few hours.
I stepped into the heart and soul of our Allied Operations, an extremely high-tech command center that had a lot of low-tech touches. We’d seen our “gee whiz” fail before, so for every high-tech ‘gizmo,’ there was a low-tech back-up system. We no longer used the HF, UHF, VHF, or FM radios for communications. Now it was all LF, VLF, and ELF systems. Even the Commercial Radio stations were transmitting on AM again, with FM radio almost a complete thing of the past. Even those who weren’t “worried” about the Gomer threat anymore were still very reluctant to send a signal on an FM or higher frequency radio. Internet radios and television were the thing now, assuming the internet was working properly, and so there was a resurgence of entertainment in the post war world. My being old school, I personally preferred the telephone for the more serious conversations, and so did our President.
“General?”
“Yessir, Mr. President?”
“What is your recommendation as to the threat level?”
“Sir, I would have to assess it as high, and I’ve alerted all major commands and senior commanders to be on alert accordingly at alert level yellow.”
“Do you have a recommendation about evacuation of the cities?”
“I don’t have enough information to answer that yet, sir, but given our history, I would seriously consider maybe moving key personnel to more hardened facilities, while putting the public on some sort of alert.”
“I just hate to cause a panic for no reason.”
“I agree, Mr. President. Just as an idea, maybe you could treat it like a weather type event. Maybe make evacuation non-mandatory, like with an oncoming hurricane, at least for the next 12 to 24 hours. Then as the objects move closer, make it mandatory for the final 12 hours. It might move the bulk of the population out to safer ground, while the infrastructure can manage it. If you wait until the last minute, then the roads will be jammed, and panic will really set in.”
“Okay, it is an idea. I’ll talk it over with the cabinet. Can I quote you as making that recommendation?”
“Sure! Marty, you can quote me whenever you want, but if you do, make sure it starts with ‘hey you assholes, listen up.’”
“Funny! I knew giving you the 5th Star would make you the consummate smartass!”
“Sorry, Mr. President, but you know most of those guys don’t want to hear from me. I’ve been accused of being ‘Chicken Little’ one too many times.”
“Yeah, I know, but if you will recall, I was the ‘Chicken Little’ last time around.”
“Yessir, and you saved more than a few lives, to include mine, for those of us who listened.”
“Bingo! My point exactly. Now get to work, get the latest intelligence, and then be prepared to brief when I get there.”
“Yessir, and I can assume you’ll be bringing the key players with you, so we will open up your new facilities and have security teams prepared to receive you.”
“Roger that, and we should have everyone out and on the way to you within the next 6 hours.”
“Can do, sir! Your new home will be ready, and don’t forget to bring the grandkids.” With that, the President chuckled and broke the connection. I turned to get the staff fired up, briefed, and moving in the right direction. Within minutes, our first war briefing in three years began in earnest. As Colonel Feldman briefed the course, speed, and anticipated progress of the new ships, Dr. Abramson and Dr. Clarkson entered the room. Dr. Clarkson sat in rapt attention studying the track of the objects, their movement patterns, and course projections. As one of the few people on Earth who had experienced first-hand the Gomer ship and technology, his opinions would be vital to our understanding and to identifying the proper tasks we would need to accomplish over the next few hours.
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