believe the landing ships held far less than
half of their maximum capacity, assuming the interiors were as roomy as
comparable sized human ships.”
“My God, we’re lucky they didn’t land their entire force. In
two days there wouldn’t have been anyone alive to tell the tale.” Stanford
realized.
“That’s why we think they held the other ships back, Mam.
This was a demonstration attack, intended to terminate after two days. They
committed horrible atrocities, such as cannibalism, in order to provoke us, not to kill the entire population. Something they apparently could have
easily accomplished.”
“Jean, I don’t wish to sound ridiculous, but they aren’t
human, so those weren’t examples of cannibalism, it could be actual feeding, or
perhaps a means to extract the maximum emotional fear and terror from us.”
“Yes Mam.” She accepted the factual correction, but retained
the personal opinion that it was a form of cannibalism. This was why she posed
her own rhetorical question next.
“These are an advanced technological race, so why would they
eat another highly intelligent life form? We were slow to clean up our own act,
but people eventually banned consumption of our more intelligent species on
Earth. Such as dolphins, whales, higher primates, dogs, cats, and horses.”
The President shook her head, “Jean, I have an unpleasant
feeling we will find out a lot worse about them. This is only the opening move.
What do we know about them physically? They kicked the hell out of anyone that
went up against them, but we have some of their remains for study.” She looked
at several Tri-Vid images of the aliens.
“How long before we have a profile of their capabilities,
and anatomy. Perhaps something I can tell the joint parliament to convince them
to enact the defense spending measures I plan to propose?”
“Mam, the alien autopsies will not be ready in the couple of
hours you have. Or, is that a necropsy for these things?” She didn’t want to be
nitpicked again on the difference.
“I shouldn’t have corrected you before, Jean. We aren’t
going to make diplomatic contact any easier if we use terminology that reduces
these ‘people’ to mere animals by our choice of words. As distasteful as it
will be, we must try to enter negotiations with their leadership, or government
representatives. We killed millions in our own wars, and yet we formed
alliances with former enemies.”
“Yes Mam,” Jean acknowledged, but without a shred of
conviction. “Until their corpses have been examined in detail, why not use some
of the less graphic footage of their physical capabilities as examples of what
they can do? Although that may be redundant with the Tri-Vid news ‘wolf packs,’
as I call them, splattering the worst gore they can find on every channel.
Naturally it’s always prefixed with the courtesy warning that what we are about
to see may be disturbing .” She shook her head.
The briefing went on, until Stanford said she needed to rehearse
her upcoming speech. She was grateful that her first six-year term of office
wasn’t at risk for four years. However, her support from Parliamentary coalitions
in the House might fall apart, if public outcry forced those Representatives to
shift positions. They would be facing the wrath of the people they represented
if they lost their confidence.
A third of the Senate was up for election in eight months.
The election results would feel the impact of what they did, or didn’t do, to
satisfy the voters this week. Nevertheless, her large Senate majority support
would likely endure, at least until the next third of them came up for
election.
For the first time in three hundred years, a Planetary Union
president needed to propose a huge defense budget increase. The Navy was going
to be very happy. If they could keep the aliens away from the planets, there
would be no more massacres on the ground.
****
Gatrol Kanpardi was addressing the joint clan
half of their maximum capacity, assuming the interiors were as roomy as
comparable sized human ships.”
“My God, we’re lucky they didn’t land their entire force. In
two days there wouldn’t have been anyone alive to tell the tale.” Stanford
realized.
“That’s why we think they held the other ships back, Mam.
This was a demonstration attack, intended to terminate after two days. They
committed horrible atrocities, such as cannibalism, in order to provoke us, not to kill the entire population. Something they apparently could have
easily accomplished.”
“Jean, I don’t wish to sound ridiculous, but they aren’t
human, so those weren’t examples of cannibalism, it could be actual feeding, or
perhaps a means to extract the maximum emotional fear and terror from us.”
“Yes Mam.” She accepted the factual correction, but retained
the personal opinion that it was a form of cannibalism. This was why she posed
her own rhetorical question next.
“These are an advanced technological race, so why would they
eat another highly intelligent life form? We were slow to clean up our own act,
but people eventually banned consumption of our more intelligent species on
Earth. Such as dolphins, whales, higher primates, dogs, cats, and horses.”
The President shook her head, “Jean, I have an unpleasant
feeling we will find out a lot worse about them. This is only the opening move.
What do we know about them physically? They kicked the hell out of anyone that
went up against them, but we have some of their remains for study.” She looked
at several Tri-Vid images of the aliens.
“How long before we have a profile of their capabilities,
and anatomy. Perhaps something I can tell the joint parliament to convince them
to enact the defense spending measures I plan to propose?”
“Mam, the alien autopsies will not be ready in the couple of
hours you have. Or, is that a necropsy for these things?” She didn’t want to be
nitpicked again on the difference.
“I shouldn’t have corrected you before, Jean. We aren’t
going to make diplomatic contact any easier if we use terminology that reduces
these ‘people’ to mere animals by our choice of words. As distasteful as it
will be, we must try to enter negotiations with their leadership, or government
representatives. We killed millions in our own wars, and yet we formed
alliances with former enemies.”
“Yes Mam,” Jean acknowledged, but without a shred of
conviction. “Until their corpses have been examined in detail, why not use some
of the less graphic footage of their physical capabilities as examples of what
they can do? Although that may be redundant with the Tri-Vid news ‘wolf packs,’
as I call them, splattering the worst gore they can find on every channel.
Naturally it’s always prefixed with the courtesy warning that what we are about
to see may be disturbing .” She shook her head.
The briefing went on, until Stanford said she needed to rehearse
her upcoming speech. She was grateful that her first six-year term of office
wasn’t at risk for four years. However, her support from Parliamentary coalitions
in the House might fall apart, if public outcry forced those Representatives to
shift positions. They would be facing the wrath of the people they represented
if they lost their confidence.
A third of the Senate was up for election in eight months.
The election results would feel the impact of what they did, or didn’t do, to
satisfy the voters this week. Nevertheless, her large Senate majority support
would likely endure, at least until the next third of them came up for
election.
For the first time in three hundred years, a Planetary Union
president needed to propose a huge defense budget increase. The Navy was going
to be very happy. If they could keep the aliens away from the planets, there
would be no more massacres on the ground.
****
Gatrol Kanpardi was addressing the joint clan
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