If We Had Known
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Beyond the Cradle of mankind, the universe is vast, unknown, dangerous to the unwary…or those caught in the path of intrepid explorers proceeding without forethought.
Thirteen authors explore what it is to pioneer the future in tales fraught with danger and remorse, tempered with hope, luck, and serendipity. We face the monsters. We
Jody Lynn Nye
Jody Lynn Nye lists her main career activity as 'spoiling cats.' When not engaged upon this worthy occupation, she writes fantasy and science fiction, most of it in a humorous bent. Since 1987 she has published over 50 books and more than 170 short stories. She has also written with notables in the industry, including Anne McCaffrey and Robert Asprin. Jody teaches writing seminars at SF conventions, including the two-day intensive workshop at Dragon Con, and is Coordinating Judge for the Writers of the Future Contest.
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If We Had Known - Jody Lynn Nye
The Necessary Enemy
Ian Randal Strock
Yang and yin, light and dark, good and evil. The philosophers have known all along. But seeing the applicability of philosophy to real life has never been humanity’s strong suit.
If we had realized that it takes a villain to make a hero. If we had realized that we needed an enemy in order to be the victor. If we had realized a ruling party needs a loyal opposition.…
Make America Great Again
started off as a campaign slogan, and became a political rallying cry. But as with most political slogans, it was only half-right. Where the slogan failed was in ignoring the fact that, in order to be great, America had to be compared to something else, had to have an equally great enemy to contend against.
America’s rise to greatness began with the Civil War. In those years of horror and death, the Northern states finally came together as a coherent whole, truly a united nation. After the war, it took a long time to integrate the Southern states into that whole.
When Theodore Roosevelt launched the Great White Fleet, he was announcing America’s intention to take a major role on the world stage, and by the time of World War I, the USA was on its way to greatness. From the American point of view, the war was brief, giving Americans the impetus to build up to a war footing without the drain of actually fighting a terribly long war. And at war’s end, the USA grabbed center stage as a powerful player. Even if the nation rejected Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations, his actions in Paris served notice that the United States was a major player. And then World War II truly brought America to the top of the heap.
But it wasn’t simply domestic will that made America a superpower, it wasn’t merely the creation of the atomic bomb. It was the fact that we faced enemies of equal stature. During that war, it was Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan, both of whom were sent to ignominious defeat.
At the end of the war, the leaders of the free world foresaw the rise of the Soviet Union, and promulgated the Bretton Woods agreement to guarantee the peace of the free world. Maintaining that agreement, guaranteeing free passage of the seas, made the USA a superpower.
And the rise of the Soviet Union gave the United States a true adversary, an equal but opposite superpower against whom to contend. Thus, the USSR, more than anything else, is what made America great.
It was because of the USSR that the USA came together to put a man on the Moon. In 1962, John Kennedy spoke at Rice University, and while everyone remembers him saying we will put a man on the Moon and safely return him to Earth during this decade,
it was the reasons leading up to that statement that truly kicked the American space program in the ass. In the prefatory paragraphs of his speech, he said for the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.… Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war.… Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40 of them were ‘made in the United States of America’ and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.… To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.
It wasn’t that the moon was a great place to go; it was that we had to beat the commies to get there. An adversary pushing, not a goal pulling.
And after we won the space race, it was because of the USSR that the USA built the largest, most powerful navy the world had ever known. It was because of the USSR that the USA strove to excel in the sciences, in economics, in pretty much every field of endeavor.
Unfortunately, we slipped up. We didn’t think deeply enough about the conflict. We lost sight of our need for the Soviet Union’s existence, and started thinking of them as an enemy to actually be defeated. Thus, Ronald Reagan’s SDI program—perhaps accidentally—did force the USSR to spend itself into bankruptcy. It wasn’t long after that the USSR fell apart, leaving the USA as the world’s only superpower. And in the glory of that triumph, we didn’t realize it heralded our own coming slide. But George Orwell had pegged that one, with the never-ending war in 1984.
Without a proper enemy, maintaining our stature as a superpower became a nearly futile exercise. That status began to invite attacks, not by another superpower, but by gnats, mosquitos, tiny groups of feral dogs bent on taking down the biggest kid on the block. Not unlike an elephant, which is able to stomp a lion, but can be taken down by a pack of jackals, the United States was open to attack by tiny groups of religious zealots.
That’s why, though we did (unfortunately) win the Cold War, we could never win the War on Drugs,
the War on Poverty,
the wars
of terrorism, nor defeat any of the other invented, too-small enemies. We could never invent an enemy great enough. Consider TNG’s episode, Elementary, Dear Data
: a villain has to be able to win to make the fight worth fighting.
So we find ourselves in need of an enemy. A great enemy. One worthy of our stature.
And we can look beyond our own greatness. As we gathered a coalition of allies to win World War II (and tried to build coalitions for the later, tinier wars), we can once again gather a coalition of nations—if we can present them with a truly great, truly awesome enemy, one that requires our combined efforts.
We need an alien invasion. We don’t want Star Trek’s Vulcans, lending a helping hand. The self-loathing of Avatar would do more to keep us at home. Even the mindless planet-killers of Armageddon or Deep Impact probably wouldn’t serve to elicit our best efforts. What we truly need is Independence Day. We need a massive alien invasion that threatens to destroy all life on Earth. That… that would be an enemy awesome enough and mighty enough to make us once again great.
But you know, there’s just never an alien invasion around when you need one.
That’s why I called you, individually and specifically, here in secrecy within the relative anonymity of the International Space Development Conference. Within this room, I believe, are the minds that can convince the world of a coming alien threat. You were specifically chosen for your backgrounds. Among you we have scientists, engineers, fictioneers… people representing all the fields of human endeavor necessary to convince the public that we face an existential threat, and that we can overcome that threat.
I’ll say it before you can: as scientists, we’re dedicated to the search for truth. Are we abrogating that public trust if we lie an alien invasion into existence? Yes, in the short term, we probably are. But in the longer term? I think we’ve all said, at one time or another, that the greatest threat to humanity’s survival is not leaving the surface of the planet. So if perpetrating the lie that an alien invasion is coming can be the driving force to get us to expand into space, do you think we could live with ourselves?
What do you say? Shall we get down to the business of lying to humanity?
~*~
That recording was made surreptitiously by my great-grandfather. And every day after that conference ended, he devoted himself to helping humanity prepare for the alien threat. For three generations, our family has worked in the great endeavor. But I still believe it was that gathering, that discussion, that was the sole driving force that got humanity off the surface of Earth in a meaningful way, that drove us to develop the orbitals, and Moonbase Artemis, and the Traveler. And now, as you’re getting ready to join the first wave of humanity to voyage beyond the confines of the Solar System, it’s time to pass the burden of knowledge on to you. Only you can decide when or if your fellow travelers will be ready to learn that their voyage is predicated on a myth. That there really is no imminent alien invasion. I leave it to you to decide when they will have reached the stage of saying If we had known, we would have gone anyway.
The Steady Drone of Silence
Danielle Ackley-McPhail
Excuse me? Lieutenant Kolby…excuse me! Christopher James spoke softly into the headset attached to the helmet the lieutenant had jammed onto his head before they’d left the transport.
I need to know what’s gone wrong…"
Just ahead, Kolby snapped around to look over his shoulder, his features hard-set and his gaze unyielding. His posture projected urgency.
Christopher fell silent as he felt his eyes widen and the rest of him go cold. This must be how a rabbit feels caught in a hawk’s sights, he thought as he swallowed hard and fought the urge to duck his head. Kolby looked away and continued his hurried, but methodical progress through the brush, his eyes continually scanning in all directions, even straight up into the sky.
A shiver ran over Christopher. Why would the lieutenant look up?
Clutching the straps of the rucksack holding his tablet computer, he did his best to move as quickly and quietly as the soldiers escorting him. Fat chance of that, though. He was a civilian contractor. An engineer. A tech head specializing in unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. Two weeks ago he’d been pulled from his current research project with no explanation. Now he found himself on the butt end of Demeter traipsing through the wilds, destination unknown. He didn’t have to ask to know the soldiers escorting him weren’t any happier about it than he was.
Maybe he should have been paying more attention to where he was walking, instead of worrying over where he was going. Abruptly, his forward motion switched to downward as a root or something snagged his foot, tripping him. Christopher started to cry out only to find himself gripped by what felt like two steel bands, one across his mouth, the other around his upper arm. He had the vague impression the rest of the soldiers around him had dropped low to the ground and gone still. Christopher himself couldn’t help but tremble as he came eye to up-close eye with Lieutenant Kolby.
"Do you want to die?" The words were so low and emphatic Christopher questioned if he’d actually heard them, either way the message was clear in Kolby’s gaze.
Christopher shook his head.
Kolby looked over at the soldier to their left. Samson, if Christopher remembered correctly. Hanging from the man’s neck was an electronic device. Some kind of tracker-slash-monitor. All Christopher knew was the little green light on the top of the housing meant they were good. If the red one went on, they were screwed. The man nodded and Kolby nodded back. Only then did he release his grip on Christopher. One hand dropped to the rifle hanging from the strap slung across Kolby’s chest, the other rose slowly into the air in an obscure gesture Christopher had to guess meant ‘proceed’, because—as if they were guided by one brain—the six soldiers rose from where they crouched and continued through the brush with barely a sound.
Christopher couldn’t move.
The soldier behind him gave him a controlled shove. Not enough to make him fall, but enough to break the grip of the fear anchoring Christopher in place. He was terrified of messing up again. He was terrified of whatever was out there that had Kolby treading so lightly. He was terrified of never making it home.
Christopher had no place being on this mission.
Apparently the military felt otherwise. Or at least someone up the chain of command did.
Christopher just wished he knew what they were thinking because the only thing worse than being out here was having no clue why.
~*~
Just before sunset, they stopped to set up camp beneath a stand of saplings. Of course, on Demeter ‘sapling’ meant the boles were a mere eighteen inches in diameter and the lowest branches fifteen feet over head. Christopher stood just beneath the trees at twilight numbly wondering how he could barely feel his feet, yet at the same time have them burn like fire.
Around him the soldiers raised a light-framed canopy, large enough for all of them to crowd beneath. He watched as they lowered the sides. The fabric was familiar. It woke the echo of a memory in his fogged brain. He reached out to rub a fold between his fingers. Again, familiar, and now he knew why. A plasticized version of the nylon fiber had been used to form the body of a long-flying surveillance drone he’d served as project lead on. It had been just the edge they’d needed to successfully conclude the assignment. Not only was the material ultralight, but micro-circuitry woven among the threads was programmable for several key functions, from camouflaging to shielding to alternate energy absorption. When paired with the focused inboard lasers as an ignition source, latent energy could be converted into accessible power that could then be absorbed by the drone’s thermal converter. Their goal had been to create a self-sustaining, self-repairing drone that could remain airborne for a year or more at a consistent altitude.
His team had succeeded.
He was very proud of that project; regretted having had to pass it on to Captain Linda Pierce, and the military’s practical testing group. Professional rivalry aside, he more than liked Linda, though nothing much had come of it so far. Kind of hard when the military kept sending her off to remote locations to test his prototypes. Still, he always managed something to ensure she didn’t forget about him. This time it had been a gaudy, glittery pin that proudly proclaimed "I’m #2!" He’d slipped it in with the transfer papers.
He couldn’t wait to see what prank she pulled to get even. Who knew when that would be, though. Practical testing could take months. He hoped she was treating his baby with care. Just before the hand-off, a fire at the research facility had destroyed his final notes for the project before he was able to back them up. He would have to reverse engineer the final stages from the prototype before the drones could go into production.
A familiar grip settled on Christopher’s shoulder, yanking him around and away from his thoughts. Perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I believed I was, Mr. James, when this all started. When we had our talk about how to stay alive.
Exhausted and frustrated and more than a little annoyed, Christopher had less control of his tongue than usual. As in none. Quite clear, Lieutenant Kolby, just not nearly complete enough.
Even as the words left his mouth, Christopher flinched. Kolby’s jaw couldn’t have jutted harder if it had been carved from granite. Still gripping Christopher’s shoulder, he hauled him across to the edge of the canopy, as far as they could get from the other men.
Excuse me?
Kolby’s tone was low and even and completely at odds with his body language.
Sighing, Christopher dropped his gaze, before forcing it up again. It was in his nature to avoid conflict, but this wasn’t the lab, and this wasn’t going away. If he was already going to catch heat, he might as well speak his piece.
"Lieutenant, I’m not a soldier. I haven’t had a soldier’s training. I don’t know how to move like you need me to. I don’t have combat instincts. I haven’t been trained to navigate terrain. I don’t know what I need to watch for, or what I need to avoid."
He could tell by Kolby’s furrowing brow that what he was trying to say wasn’t getting through.
Lieutenant Kolby, I’m a civilian, as much as we all need me to act like a soldier I’m never going to be good enough, especially compared to your men. I just don’t have the skills.
He raised his hands in the classic gesture of ‘this is what you get’. "I’m an engineer. I’m assuming that’s why I’m on this mission, why else would you go to the trouble… the risk…to haul me out here? But I don’t have the data I need. I don’t know what problem to bend my mind to. I need time to pull a solution out of my ass. If I’m going to be of any use to you, I have to know what’s going on before it’s in my face."
For a moment, Christopher thought he might have connected, then Kolby’s military protocol clearly kicked in.
Civilian or not, Mr. James, when you are in that uniform, on this mission…you are under my command!
Kolby barked out low and hard, his face bright red and his features twisted in anger. "I will tell you what you need to know, when you are authorize to know it. Until then, you bend that pointed little head of yours toward following orders before what’s in your face is a shit storm!"
Acid bubbled in Christopher’s gut as the lieutenant stalked away as far as the tent allowed. He stood there, pale and trembling in the wake of the conflict, forcing himself to remain standing straight. A taut silence hung in the air as the other soldiers went about their duties, clearly aware of the confrontation, but in no way reacting.
Without a word, Christopher moved to his belongings and spread out his bedroll. Before he could lay down, Kolby tossed a ration pack at him. It hit Christopher’s chest hard enough it stung. His arms reflexively closed around it.
"Eat, now. We’re not carrying your ass tomorrow."
Christopher’s jaw clenched and his gut spasmed, but he followed orders.
~*~
They woke and broke camp before the sunrise did more than flirt with the horizon. Kolby ignored him—thank God—but the soldier from the day before, a dark-skinned man with RANDALL on his name tape and sergeant’s stripes on his sleeve, pulled Christopher off to the side before they started the day’s march.
Think of it like a circuit board,
Randall said, his gaze darting toward the lieutenant, like he was watching for one of his signals.
Christopher frowned. What?
"Moving through the terrain…it’s tricky, you have to be careful to avoid notice…like when you’re working on a circuit board. You need to know right where to move, and when to move, or you break or fry the circuits. Same with what we’re doing here. Be alert, look for what’s in your way…twigs beneath your