The Rock

THE COALITION

A discordant sound reverberated in Hawkins's ears, like the sound coming out of a car's speakers as you try to tune in to a distant station. The spot of white light in the center elongated and pulsed. Hawkins started as the static suddenly disappeared and words echoed in his head. "You can call me the Speaker. It is my role to communicate with you."

A red dot appeared to the left of the white light, followed by a blue one to the right. The white image remained elongated, pulsing as the words came. "I am joined by the Mediator and the Defender. We represent the Coalition."

Another long silence filled Hawkins's head.

"It is the Defender's message I will communicate first." A multicolored glow appeared in the air between Hawkins and the others and the far wall. It fluctuated briefly, then coalesced into an intricate system of numerous glowing dots. With great effort Hawkins twisted his head and looked to his left. He could now see the others in the reflected glow. Levy's eyes were focused ahead and she seemed unaware of anything except the lights in front of her.

Hawkins tried to speak and nothing came out. He concentrated hard and tried again. "What is it?" he managed to croak out.

Levy blinked and only her eyes turned, acknowledging his words. "That's a star map," she replied.

"I will orient you," the voice in his head said. The left center section of the map glowed bright green. "That is the Coalition." On the outer edge of the Coalition a spot started flickering. "You call the third planet of your system-the planet you live on-Earth. I will use the same term. Earth is there."

Hawkins licked his lips nervously. If that one dot was the Earth, the Coalition consisted of thousands of star systems.

A large section outside the Coalition suddenly turned bright red. "That is the Swarm. For three hundred and twenty thousand of your years there has been war between the Coalition and the Swarm. It is not a war we wish. It is a war we must fight for survival."

One factor stood out to Hawkins immediately: The tiny flickering dot that represented Earth stood at a point where green and red surged up against each other.

"Although we are not of your species, we are similar. We are able to communicate with you in this manner and through our transmissions. The Swarm is different. You would not understand their thinking. They would most definitely not be interested in understanding yours. And they would not attempt any form of communication other than death. They hold nothing outside of themselves"-for the first time the Speaker, hesitating, seemed to be searching for words, — "they hold nothing outside of themselves worthy of respect. They are not individual entities as you understand life to be. They have what you might call a race consciousness that supersedes the individual life-forms that make up their race. We have never been able to speak to them. The only communication between our races has been death.

"We first encountered the Swarm over three hundred thousand of your years ago. To that point we had not known interstellar war. The last planetary war in the Coalition had ended a millennia previously. Once a planet was accepted into the Coalition, it was past the point of aggression-otherwise it would not have been allowed in."

A large section of the red area bordering the green was highlighted. "For six hundred of your years the Swarm overwhelmed us before we were able to make adjustments and defend ourselves. We lost all those systems marked and all the life in them in that time. Billions of life-forms perished in the fighting. Entire species were obliterated.

"Since then we have been able to keep the Swarm at bay." A brief red glow showed on the far side of the star map. "We believe that the Swarm has expanded in the other direction away from the Coalition, but no probe through Swarm space has ever returned. Over the years the Swarm has continued to attack our border at sporadic times, at points seemingly chosen at random."

A bright white line suddenly glowed, dividing the red from green. "To contain the Swarm, two hundred thousand of your years ago we developed a defensive boundary. Because the border was too vast to patrol constantly, we devised a static planetary surveillance line to be supplemented by mobile Space Forces."

The map swirled and the glowing dot that was Earth expanded. Hawkins realized that the area around Earth had been blown up for clearer viewing. He could see small representations of the sun and the other planets, hovering in the air in front of him.

"Your solar system was chosen to be incorporated in that surveillance line for two reasons. Primarily because of its location. But also because of the presence of life on the third planet. Deep-space sensors and weapons were placed at the edge of your system and oriented outward." A series of small glowing dots appeared outside the orbit of Pluto.

The air cleared and then there was only Earth hanging in the air, slowly rotating. "The control system and master relay were placed on the third planet." Six small spots glowed on the surface of the globe. Hawkins could immediately place each spot as the continents came into view: Tunguska, Ayers Rock, Ries Basin, Vredefort Dome, Meteor Crater, and Campo del Cielo.

"The Swarm attacked in force through this part of the Coalition approximately one hundred and ninety thousand years ago. The defense system succeeded in its primary task of giving sufficient notice, and Coalition Space Forces responded. A great space battle was fought three hundred parsecs from your solar system and the Swarm was beaten back despite heavy losses to the Coalition. The defense system only partially succeeded in its secondary mission of protecting this solar system."

Half the lights winked off on the globe-Ries Basin, Meteor Crater, and Campo de Cielo. "Three of the relay sites were destroyed by the Swarm. There were near misses at the ones you call Vredefort Dome and Ayers Rock."

The scene expanded again to take in the solar system. Many of the small red dots around the rim of the system disappeared. "Forty-three percent of the deep-space sensors and automated weapons were also destroyed. Despite those losses, though, the system remained functional, as the original had had redundancy built in." There was the briefest of pauses. "With the recent loss of the relay under Vredefort Dome the system is no longer functional to the satisfaction of the Defender."

There was a long pause. Hawkins stared through the display at the three points of light. He glanced down at his hands and could see the wrists where they disappeared into the red glow. He again tried to withdraw his hands and failed. He forced himself to relax and slow his heartbeat.

"The Defender has proposed to Council three options. The first option is to repair the defense system." The lights in the Solar System blinked back on. Then the lights shifted back to the star map. "The second option is to expand our border beyond the vicinity of your planet and build a new defense system here in what you call the Sirius Alpha and Beta system and another here in the Epsilon 2398 Alpha and Beta system to adequately defend the new area." The green sphere crept outward a tiny fraction. ''That would move your solar system from being on the border to being inside our border.

"The third option is to contract our border and build a defense system here in the Barnard's star system." The green sphere edged back a fraction of an inch. The small flashing dot representing Earth stood alone between the red and the green.

Hawkins glanced to his left. Levy was staring at the star map. Beyond her Tuskin turned his head and met Hawkins's eyes. They were both military men and understood immediately what the three proposals represented in strategic terms. The Speaker's next words confirmed what Hawkins had feared.

"The Defender recommends option three."

In the silence following these last words Hawkins could hear the sound of his own heartbeat thudding through his arteries. He was startled when Levy spoke for the first time.

"Why?"

There was no indication that she was heard. The star map disappeared and only the three lights remained. The center one continued to pulse in rhythm to the words spoken.

"I will now speak for the Mediator. All factors have been considered as presented by the Defender. Option one would require the least cost, but is considered too risky because the native life-forms on the third planet have proven themselves a threat to the defense system by having destroyed part of it.

"Option two would require the highest cost, but would only be done if the Council considered the natives of the third planet as potentially worthy of membership in the Coalition. It would require a lengthening of our internal lines of communication, which is not recommended.

"Option three is recommended because it can be immediately implemented and requires no interaction with the natives of the third planet. Additionally, it reduces our internal lines of communications, always a desirable military goal.

"The Mediator's role is to observe and then present to the Council the perspective of all parties involved. The Defender's perspective has been presented. The Mediator has studied the data on your planet. The Mediator has tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are not yet ready for inclusion in the Coalition, nor are they on a developmental path that would lead to it."

In place of the lights was a swift flickering of images, most gleaned from Earth news reports. Despite the rapid shifting of scenes Hawkins recognized all of it-Lebanon, the Gulf War, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, all the hot-spots of the world flashed before his eyes in a distressing series of pictures.

"The Mediator has also tentatively concluded that the natives of Earth are responsible for the destruction of the relay site under Vredefort Dome and that there is a statistically significant probability that there may be future damage to the defense system caused by the natives, even if the present damage were to be repaired-especially now that our relay sites at Ayers Rock and Tunguska have been detected and uncovered."

Again the scenes shifted, this time showing pictures of missile silos, submarines, bombers, and other military hardware.

The images disappeared. "The Mediator believes that the natives of the third planet should be given a chance to present their perspective. There is some information we require to clarify the situation. Why are only three of the eight personnel we requested present? You may now speak."

Hawkins blinked and looked at Debra, then down the line at Tuskin. The Russians must have been given a list of four names also. "We did not understand what the message meant," Debra offered.

"You understood enough to uncover our relays at Tunguska and Ayers Rock," the voice replied. "You understood enough to send some personnel across. We examined the man who came through alone-he was injured and disoriented and appeared simply to be fleeing the site where he had been. He was not one of those we requested. We sent him onward to where our scanners indicated he desired to go. Where are the other personnel we requested?"

"Our other two members are waiting for us to report back on what we have discovered," Hawkins said. "We had no idea what would happen when we went through the Wall in your relay site."

"What about your other three, Colonel Tuskin?"

That was the first indication that the voice knew whom it was addressing. That also explained the eight seats lined up. Hawkins wondered what sort of information might be getting drawn from him through whatever had pierced his skin. Was it some sort of lie detector? What had he been injected with?

Tuskin seemed at a loss for words for a few seconds. "My people also did not know what would happen. Your Defender should understand that a reconnaissance is in order before committing oneself to a course of action. As the military man listed, I was sent across first."

"Your distrust and unwillingness to comply with a simple request does not indicate favorably. We selected the two most powerful group entities on your planet to communicate to. Between your two entities you control the vast preponderance of military might-and most of the destructive weapons that pose a threat to our relay sites.

"More important, you are the only two group entities on this planet that have projected personnel into space. That is normally considered one of the first steps in proving eligibility to join the Coalition. We were disappointed to discover that you have managed to do that, yet still remain as a species entity on your planet."

"Did you destroy the Voyager 2 probe?" Hawkins asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the failings of the human race.

"Yes. When it passed out of your star system, it was detected by the sensors and examined. The main computer allowed it to continue until the Vredefort Dome relay was destroyed. At that time automatic defensive measures destroyed it. The initial reaction was that the Vredefort Dome relay had been destroyed by a Swarm attack, and all systems responded accordingly until the data could be examined."

"How could a Swarm attack have made it through your defensive system to attack Earth?" Tuskin asked.

"The Defender has shown you that the system has been degraded. The Swarm has the capability to make attacks of limited size that might evade the external sensors."

"Has this happened before?" Hawkins wondered why Tuskin seemed so concerned about this.

"Most recently, in the time count you call 1908, a Swarm Splinter ship infiltrated this system. It reached the third planet and launched an attack on the Tunguska relay. We were able to destroy the ship just prior to destruction of the relay. We were not capable of doing that at Vredefort Dome because the attack came from the planet natives and not the Swarm."

"The explosion at Vredefort Dome was not done by either of our governments," Hawkins tried explaining.

"It was done by a native of the third planet."

Hawkins went into detail, talking about the two missing bombs and the fact that he had been part of a team trying to recover them. He felt shackled with the inability to use his hands and by the total lack of response from the three points of light. There was no indication that he was even being heard, until he had finished. The reply was not what he had hoped.

"We are not interested in the factionalism among the natives of the third planet except as they directly affect the Coalition. The destruction of the relay site at Vredefort Dome did so affect us. We wish to avoid such occurrences in the future. For that reason we have shown you the three options we are considering, along with the perspective the Defender and the Mediator have on those options.

"The fact that you have a weapon still missing and uncontrolled that is capable of such power as that which destroyed the Vredefort Dome relay was a very significant factor when we considered your species on the scale for acceptance into the Coalition or even simply protection by the Coalition.

"We carefully selected four personnel from each of your two factions in terms of the skills of those personnel so you could understand the options and the relative merits of those options. We chose one military person to be able to understand the Defender's analysis. We chose a statistician to understand the risk-and-benefit projection of each option. A geologist to be able to help you uncover the relay sites so we might bring you here. And a physicist to understand scientific matters as they might come up to affect your decision."

"Where are we now?" Tuskin asked.

"Our present location is classified," the Speaker replied.

"Are we on Earth?" Tuskin persisted.

"No."

"How did we get here?" Tuskin asked.

"Through what you call the portals or Walls."

"We know that," Tuskin replied. "I want to know how we traveled through space to get here."

"Even if we told you, you would not understand."

Hawkins was frustrated. He had the answers to many of the questions they had been struggling with prior to going through the portal. But those questions were no longer important in the face of what the Speaker had presented. "You have shown us your three options. You have also indicated which option you are inclined to pursue. You say you want our perspective, yet you seem to know all you need to know about humans to make your decision. What true options do we have? What can we do to influence your decision? You must have brought us here for some reason other than simply to explain the situation to us."

"We felt we must apprise you of the situation out of respect for you as sentient beings. The Mediator also desired to hear from you should there be anything that might change the analysis of the situation."

There was a long silence and Hawkins was surprised when Debra was the one to break it. "You said you wanted our perspective, but you ask it only after presenting us with information we were not aware of, and which in itself would change our perspective. Our race is still very young as compared to yours. We need time to develop and we need time to adjust to this new information."

Tuskin stirred. "You chose us, but we are not the ones that make decisions for our species. We can bring your message back to those who do. That may change things on our planet enough so that your first or second option may be feasible. If our governments cooperate, we can make this planet a worthwhile place to defend."

"We will consider this. Wait." The room went totally dark and Hawkins was left with the image of the lights etched on his retinas, slowly fading away.

Hawkins was sweating despite the cool temperature. He directed his question in the general direction of Tuskin. "You were sent four names?"

Tuskin's voice sounded very far away. "Yes. A message to our space lab. Very directional. It came up from Tunguska. That, along with the message out of Ayers Rock, led us to dig. We have long known there was something strange about what happened at Tunguska so many years ago."

"Why didn't your government send the four people named in the message?" Levy asked.

"Why didn't yours?" Tuskin countered. "Why did you infiltrate our country to try and find out what we were doing? We can ask questions all day, but if they come back through that door and say they want nothing more to do with us, everything as we know it may be over!"

"The last time this Swarm attacked Earth was 1908," Hawkins observed. "It may be a long time before they do it again."

"The simple fact that they are out there is enough!" Tuskin spoke harshly. "You know as well as I do that the Coalition's most feasible military option is to pull back and shorten their defensive line."

"I take hope from the fact that they didn't simply do that," Debra said. "That they chose to speak to us is important."

Tuskin seemed not to have heard. "We have been groveling in the dirt fighting each other since the beginning of civilization, yet now suddenly we look up and realize that we have been so infantile!" His voice lashed out at Hawkins. "I kill you because you are American. You kill me because I am Russian. Yet we are all human." Hawkins heard him spit. "Stupidity. It is too late. It is all over."

Hawkins could understand where the other man's anger came from. Tuskin had spent his life dedicated to fighting for a government that had fallen apart at the seams just a few short years before. The carefully cultivated myth of duty, honor, and country in the Russian military had had the rug pulled out from under it. Now what had happened to Tuskin's country was happening to the planet. If a trained military man like Tuskin was affected this way, Hawkins wondered how others would react when they learned what he had just been told in this room.

He was still pondering that when the lights reappeared. "You will have twenty-four hours to return to us with both a proposal and actions completed to indicate that we may consider options other than number three."

"What?" Debra exclaimed. "This system has existed for hundreds of thousands of years and you give us only twenty-four hours to do something? We must have more time."

"The relay sites you came through will return you to where you started. In twenty-four hours the portals will shut down." The lights disappeared. With a rumble the elevator door slid open behind them and the light from it spilled out into the room. Hawkins again felt a flicker of pain on the back of his hand. He pulled and this time his hands came out without any resistance. The arm swung away and he stood and turned for the elevator.