Gibraltar Sun (15 page)

At no time did Heinz mention the paper that Sar-Say had passed him during the handshake, a fact the Broa found encouraging.

#

Each of the three institutes studying different aspects of the Broa problem hosted the quarterly progress reviews in turn. The Winter Review had been held in Paris and the Spring Review in Colorado Springs. The Summer Review, originally scheduled for June, but postponed until late August at the request of the World Coordinator, was to be held in Boston. Due to the proximity of Boston to Toronto, there would be several members of parliament in attendance, as well as a larger than normal contingent from the World Coordinator’s staff.

Both the Gibraltar Institute and the Vasloff Institute were well along in their studies and the Summer Review would be a preview of the plans to be submitted to parliament in the fall. The final reports would trigger an official inquiry, culminating in a vote in parliament to select the proper course of action. Optimists were predicting a decision before the end of the year. Those with experience in the parliamentary process were predicting a decision the following summer.

As on their last trip to Boston, Mark Rykand and Lisa Arden landed at Logan Regional Transport Hub and took a water taxi across Boston Harbor to their hotel on the Long Wharf. The glass-and-steel structure, the fifth hotel to occupy the site, overflowed the water and extended on pilings out into the harbor.

Mark gazed upward as their boat cruised beneath the structure en route to the loading pier. The hotel floor in this section was transparent in order that the hotel guests could see the water. From beneath, it appeared that the bustling crowd strode on air as they hurried to and fro. It also allowed, Mark noted, boat passengers to get a peek up the dresses of the occasional women who passed directly overhead. Either the women were unaware of this fact, or else it did not concern them.

They were met at the pier by the usual coterie of bellboys and greeters. That the hotel could employ people to perform this function, rather than the usual automated baggage carts, was a hint of their room prices. Mark’s personal wealth insulated him from such concerns, but most of the conference attendees were staying farther inland, where prices were more reasonable.

Checking in and getting settled took another twenty minutes. Mark spent half that time lounging on the bed while Lisa busied herself in the bathroom. When she emerged, he asked, “Well, we’ve arrived. What would you like to do now?”

The two word response did not surprise him.

“Go shopping!”

#

The Summer Conference was held in Harvard’s extensive conference center. In addition to banquet halls and a commercial-size auditorium, there were numerous smaller rooms where the conferees could break into groups and argue with one another.

As soon as they reached the center, Lisa made a beeline to the Alien Assessment Group, dedicated to the study of Broan culture and mores, with an eye for cataloging their weaknesses. Based on what Sar-Say had told them and what they had observed on the Crab Nebula expedition, the group had made considerable progress.

It would have been natural to assume that any species capable of achieving dominance over a million star systems possessed godlike powers. Yet, if the Broa were godlike, they were gods with feet of clay. The AAG had catalogued dozens of weaknesses which might prove advantageous in the coming conflict.

Prime among these was their birth rate, which was barely breakeven. For thousands of years their population had been static, or at best, growing slowly. In fact, their empire had grown faster than their population, stretching their span of control nearly to the breaking point. As a result, thousands of worlds did not see the overlords for decades at a time, and largely conducted their affairs autonomously.

In addition to being spread too thinly, the Broa had a tendency toward internecine warfare. Some researchers maintained that this was not surprising. After all, the Broa held total power within the Sovereignty, which made the acquisition of territory a zero sum game. To gain influence and property, a Broa must necessarily do so at the expense of some other Broa.

The Broa had dozens of other quirks that might prove useful to humanity. Their small numbers made them inattentive to much of their far flung empire. Nor did the birth rate seem to be solely to blame for this problem. Careful analysis of what little data they possessed suggested that not every Broa was involved in the administration of their empire.

Indeed, some statisticians maintained that only small subset of the Broan population, a civil service of sorts, actually ruled their subject worlds. This seriously exacerbated their span of control problems and led to some favorable conditions from the viewpoint of humanity.

One of the most positive aspects of Broan inattentiveness was the fact that news traveled slowly and unreliably between the million subservient star systems. This gave everyone hope that they could slip into some out-of-the-way system, bargain for that system’s planetary database, and slip out again undetected.

While Lisa went off to her group meeting, Mark popped in to sessions at random to see how things were going. He spent the morning visiting small rooms where teams of academics argued with one another over minutia that might prove important one day.

That evening, Director Fernandez hosted a banquet for the conference attendees. This was the official kickoff event to the Summer Review. After giving a speech of welcome, Fernandez announced that the first plenary session would begin the following morning, with Director Jean-Pierre Landreu giving his institute’s report. He would be followed by Mark’s boss, with the Colorado Springs report, followed by someone Fernandez described as a “surprise guest speaker.”

There was considerable murmuring among the tables of diners at that last point, but Fernandez refused to say more. His only response was, “No more business tonight. Please eat as much as you want, but drink responsibly. We want everyone sharp tomorrow. The time is fast approaching when decisions will have to be made, and we need everyone at their best in supporting those decisions. It would be a shame to doom the Earth to perpetual slavery just because someone was hung over at a critical moment!”

The admonition sobered the crowd considerably, reminding them of the weighty responsibility they carried. It was also a reminder that though their approaches to the problem of the Broan Sovereignty were different, their goal was the same: the long-term survival of the human race.

Chapter Sixteen

The large theater-like lecture hall was half-full when Mark arrived for the opening session of the Winter Review. He scanned the crowd slowly, looking for Lisa’s distinctive blonde curls. When he spotted them, he moved down the nearest aisle toward where she was sitting.

Beside her was a familiar figure.

“Mark!” Lisa exclaimed as he sidled his way to the empty seat to her right. “Look who’s here.”

“Hello, Dieter,” he said, holding out his hand.

Dieter Pavel rose to his feet and shook Mark’s hand. He had first met Pavel aboard PoleStar. Pavel had been the Coordinator’s representative.

“Hello, Mark,” Pavel replied.

“How are things in Toronto?”

“Getting interesting. There is a lot of lobbying going on behind the scenes. You would think we were having a general election, or something.”

“What’s the consensus?” Lisa asked.

“There isn’t one,” Pavel answered. “Opinion seems to be tracking ideology. The conservatives want to go kill them all as soon as we can gather enough ships. The progressives are for making it didn’t happen. The moderates are of both minds, as usual. I expect whatever comes out of this conference, plus the debate in the fall, to solidify support in all three camps… support for what they already believe, that is.”

“Typical,” Mark snorted.

Pavel shrugged. “Human beings are human beings, Mark. They’ve responded this way since long before Caesar’s critics had a few sharp things to say to him on the Ides of March. They will probably respond this way in One Million, A.D., if we get that far.”

Mark nodded. “I love mankind, but can’t stand people!” he quoted.

“Exactly,” Pavel said, recognizing the literary allusion.

As they spoke, the principals for the conference filed out onto the stage. The arrangements were standard for this sort of event: A long table to one side for the participants to sit, an ornate wooden lectern for the presenters, and an oversize holocube that was already flickering with interior static.

Mark and Dieter took their seats to Lisa’s right and left. It seemed almost like old times.

Dr. Fernandez stepped to the lectern and after twiddling with the controls of the hidden holo projector, he pressed a switch.

Instead of the sound of a gavel banging wood coming from the overhead speakers, a short refrain of the Harvard fight song wafted over the audience. Slowly, over a period of seconds, a myriad of individual conversations ceased and the audience turned their attention to the stage.

“Good morning,” Fernandez said, his amplified words issuing from the same speakers. “I hereby call the Winter Plenipotentiary Session of the Broan Institutes to order. I hope all of you are seated comfortably and have taken care of necessities before sitting down. It is going to be a long day. We will break for half-an-hour at 12:00 for a quick lunch, and will then get back to it.”

He paused for dramatic effect and then got to the meat of his remarks.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here on a vital mission. Out among the stars is a threat greater than any we have previously faced. The facts are these: We know about the Broa, but they are unaware of our existence. What do we do? As assigned by the World Coordinator, we have two teams fleshing out two competing plans. The Colorado Springs team has been assigned the task of figuring out an offensive strategy. The Paris team is working on a defensive strategy. My own team is studying a single specimen of the enemy to obtain insights in support of both plans.

“Over the next two days, we will hear reports from both groups. Keep in mind that these are constructive suggestions that those reporting have been ordered to evaluate. Whether you agree or disagree, it is your duty to give these speakers your undivided and polite attention. If you find that you must have a conversation with the people around you, then I request that you take it out into the foyer.

“Since Colorado Springs led off the Spring Review, our first speaker this morning will be Jean-Pierre Landrieu, Director-General of the Institute in Paris. Director Landrieu will give you a rundown on what his team has accomplished since last we met.

“Director Landrieu!”

#

A tall silver-haired man with an indefinable quality that labeled him “French” strode to the lectern and spent a few seconds adjusting the controls. Suddenly, a picture formed in the holocube. It showed the logo of the Paris Institute, a stylized white dove with an olive branch dangling from one closed claw.

“Bonjour,” he said. “I would like to thank Director Fernandez for hosting this meeting. I think all of us will learn a great deal as this is to be our penultimate act before we submit our respective plans to parliament. Later, each working group will set up shop in the breakout rooms and invited guests will be able to ask detailed questions of the experts. My intention this morning is not to get into every specific of our plan to make humanity safe, but rather to give you an overview. As Director Fernandez said, it is our mission at the Paris Institute to come up with a method to avoid a direct confrontation with the Broa.

“I have heard some refer to the mission of the Paris Institute as ‘figuring out how to hide from the monsters.’ The implication is that a defensive strategy is somehow dishonorable, even cowardly, too effeminate to be considered by the more macho among us.

“Such a reaction is normal human behavior. For all of our history, at the sound of trouble, the women have grabbed up the children and run away, while the men have grabbed their spears and charged toward the sound of battle. It is our species’ natural fight or flight reflex, and it has served us well.

“But giving in to an unthinking reflex can also get you killed. If the sound of battle consists of the chatter of machine guns, or the whine of an electromagnetic dart thrower, the men would do better to grab up their spears and follow the women and children. For there are situations when one finds himself hopelessly outmatched. Better to fight another day than to make a useless charge at an enemy you have no hope of defeating.

“The first thing we at the Paris Institute considered was whether we have any hope of defeating the Broa. Here is what we found:

“According to Sar-Say, and confirmed by the Crab Nebula expedition, the Broan Sovereignty consists of approximately one million stars spread across the Orion Arm of the Milky Way. Like all really large statistics, one million is a number that is difficult to comprehend. Oh, we speak blithely of millions and billions, but how many of us can truly visualize such a large number? In truth, we count much as our ancestors did:
one, two, three, many
.

“Let us take some time to understand what it means that the Broa have conquered a million star systems. Sar-Say has told us that they prefer their worlds less populated than Earth, so assuming each subject world supports one billion beings – Sar-Say’s estimate – we face
one
thousand
trillion
sentient beings! To put that in perspective, ladies and gentlemen, that is a population
one hundred thousand
times our own!

“Consider, the military power inherent in such a population. Even if each of our ships destroys one hundred Broan ships in battle, their fleet will still be a thousand times larger than ours. If they invade the Solar System, they could easily devote an entire battle fleet to each of our ships, and still have hundreds of other fleets available for the assault on Earth.

“If that doesn’t frighten you, consider some additional statistics. Assuming that their worlds average the same surface area as Earth, their trillions of people live on 1.5 x 10
14
square kilometers of land. They sail 3.6 x 10
14
square kilometers of ocean. What of their industrial power? They mine enough iron in a century to construct a full scale model of the Earth. They generate enough power in the same period to vaporize our world. I am not speaking of merely scorching the surface as we once feared we would do ourselves during the nuclear era. I am speaking of boiling the whole thing down until there is not so much as a pebble remaining.