Chapter 2

"What are we looking at, Mr. Secretary?" The President asked as he took his seat in the situation room of the White House.

"I wish I knew, sir." The Secretary of Defense shook his head. "The people on meteor watch were first to notice them. At first they thought it might be an uncharted meteor shower, but then they noticed that they were decelerating, matching orbits with Earth. We got these pictures from some of our satellites before the ships took them out."

The screens showed various views of a number of oddly shaped craft. No two bore the same shape, though each seemed to be approximately the same mass as the others.

"How big are those things?" The President asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Our best guess is that each one could swallow several supertankers and have room left over for dessert." The Defense Secretary answered.

"Are they hostile?" The President stared in wonder at what appeared to be living proof that the creationist ideology that had regained popularity of late was, if not wrong, at least incomplete.

"We can't say for sure, sir." The Secretary replied. "Clearly, they have weapons and know how to use them, since every military satellite in orbit, not just ours, was destroyed within seconds of their arrival, but they haven't touched communication or weather satellites. That could signal either hostile intent or self protection. They might have decided to combine a self-protective strike with a show of force for our benefit."

"Naturally, we've tried to contact them..." The president looked around the room.

A man wearing a rumpled sportcoat and horn-rimmed glasses cleared his throat. He looked as if he felt completely out of place, and indeed, amongst the sharply tailored business suits, crisp military uniforms, and hundred dollar haircuts, his clothing and disheveled, thinning hair set him well apart from the others.

"Uh, Dr. Sobieski, Mr. President." He mumbled. Fortunately, the microphone in front of him amplified his voice enough for the others to hear, despite his mumbling. "Current head of SETI. That stands for, uh 'Search... '"

"'... for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, yes, I know Doctor." The President finished for him. "I've always hoped you guys would come up with something exciting for us one day, but I never imagined it being quite like this. What have you got?"

"Well, nothing, sir." The scientist scratched nervously at his bald spot. "We've tried communicating with them on every wavelength we can produce, and listened on every wavelength we can detect, and frankly, we're stumped. Not only have we not gotten any response from them, but we can't detect any sort of emission from their ships, not even anything that could be construed as ship-to-ship communication."

"When you say you've tried everything, what does that encompass?" The President probed.

"Every electromagnetic wavelength we know about from extreme low frequencies to extreme high frequencies, on into infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, and beyond. We've started with basics - counting pulses and so forth, all the way to complex math and physics, but to no avail." The scientist shook his head. "We've even experimented with modulated gravity waves, x-rays and gamma radiation at low levels, but nothing has elicited a response."

"Maybe we should be good neighbors and pay them a visit," The President joked, "welcome them to the neighborhood, so to speak. While we're at it, we might ask them if they're going to pay up for the destroyed satellites." His voice turned serious once more. "Are we absolutely certain that this isn't one of our present neighbors exhibiting unexpected capabilities?"

The President's National Security Advisor spoke up. "The Russians shut down their space program decades ago, and frankly, their economy couldn't sustain a program even a tenth this ambitious. The European Union has the bucks, but there's so much infighting, and security's so lax in their space program that they'd never manage something like this without us knowing about it. The chinese program is still in its infancy. No sir, I can't say with 100% certainty, but it is highly unlikely that any of them are responsible for this."

"If someone else on earth owns these toys, I want to know about it yesterday!" The President said, "Meanwhile, on the assumption that these ships are from outer space, let's find out how to communicate with them. They haven't attacked, so maybe they are friendly. Let's find out."