Larry Niven - Footfall

Reynolds looked at the foaming glass and shuddered. “What’s that?”

“One of the last Alka-Seltzer in existence, you ungrateful bastard,” Joe Ransom said. “And Wade found you a vitamin B!. Here.”

“Bless you.” Reynolds washed the tablet down. “I think it was worth it. Even at worst, he needed to get drunk. Did I save civilization? I can’t quite remember.”

“Yeah. We watched you from the TV in the lounge. You got him thinking about the long run. We think you put some iron in his spine.”

“I hope so.” Nat moved gingerly down the hall toward his room. Then he stopped. “It shook up Harpanet a bit. He told me he’d never had a conversation with his herdmaster. Much less an argument.”

“He’ll get over it. Now he thinks you’re more important than he thought.” Ransom glanced at his watch. “My turn, I guess. You know something? I hate mud. Why couldn’t they like swimming in something sensible, like lime Jell-O?”

“Did you have a good flight?” The President didn’t wait for an answer. “What did you learn?”

“They’re in good shape, sir,” Jenny said. “The scheduled launch date was late next year, but General Gillespie thinks he’ll be ready months before that.”

“Good.” David Coffey rubbed his hands briskly together. “The sooner the better. Jack, how’s the security situation?”

“Better now that I was there,” Clybourne said. “There was a bit of a problem with the local sheriff, but we fixed that. He’ll cooperate now.”

He sure will, Jenny thought.

“We’ve laid it all out,” Jack said. “Like an onion. Highway patrolmen, only they’re Marines. No CB radios except ours, with Army intelligence people simulating CB chatter.”

“I expect you had your work cut out, rounding up all the CBs,” the President said.

“Yes, sir,” Jack said. “There was one place full of survivalists, mostly from Los Angeles of all places—”

“Los Angeles is in pretty good shape,” the President said.

“Yes, sir, but they can’t get back there. Anyway, they had a dozen radios. We got them all. They sure didn’t like giving them up.”

“Sure you got them all?”

“Yes, sir.”

“General Gillespie has put together a weapons team,” Jenny said. “Boeing engineers. Some Navy people. Even a retired science-fiction writer—”

“Good choice. They’ve been useful here.”

“Yes, sir. Anyway, they’ve invented a lot of weapons. Stovepipes. They take one of the main guns off a Navy ship. Wrap a spaceship around it. Not a lot of ship, just enough to steer it. Add an automatic loader and nuclear weapons for shells. Steer it with TV.”

“Jeez. Who’d fly that?”

“They’ve got volunteers.”

The President smiled broadly. “Good. Damn good. What else?”

“Sir, you won’t believe all the stuff they’re putting on that ship. Torpedoes with H-bombs. Cannon. Bundles of gamma-ray lasers that go off when the burst from the drive bomb hits them. Anything that can hurt the alien ship. One of the engineers was trying to get them to truck the old X-15 from the museum at Edwards. ‘It maneuvers in space, doesn’t it’?’ But I don’t think they’ll do that. It’s easier to add another stovepipe.”

“And people really will fly that,” the President said. “Damn all, we’ll beat them yet! All we have to do is hang on until it’s finished.” He glanced at his watch. “Cabinet meeting in an hour. You two have been Outside. I’ll want you there to answer questions. One thing, though, nothing about why you went north or even where you went. Most of the Cabinet doesn’t know about Michael.” The President paused. “I’m thinking about making it a total-restriction. Any who knows about Michael stays Inside. What do you think?”

Jack shrugged. “If you say so, sir—”

“I didn’t necessarily mean you two. I may have to send you up there again. But everybody else, everybody who won’t be going up north-why should they know? There were all these stories about UFOs kidnapping people—”

“That wasn’t the fithp,” Jenny said. “Sir—”

He laughed. “I know that. They’re not that smooth. They shouldn’t even be in space at all!” He sobered. “They evolved too fast. They’re clumsy, they’re bad at toolmaking. There are gaps in their knowledge, and we can exploit those. We’ll win, Colonel. You know, I could even begin to feel sorry for them.”

What’s got into him? Pictures flashed through Jenny’s head. A doll resting on a gingham skirt-I don’t feel sorry for them. But I’d rather see the President like this than ready to give up…

Jenny fidgeted uncomfortably. Cabinet meetings were important, but most of the Cabinet didn’t know the crucial secret. It must be tough trying to run the country without knowing how we plan to win.

“Item Two. The Secretary of Commerce,” Jim Frantz said.

Connie Fuller pushed her chair back as if she were going to stand, but decided against it. “I too will be brief,” she said. “And, I’m afraid my report is almost as gloomy as Admiral Carrell’s was.

“First the good news. A lot of greenhouses are going up. Crops are being planted in backyards, on school playgrounds, golf courses, lawns of public buildings-nearly everywhere. Given any luck at all, we won’t have people starving.

“I wish I had more good news, but I don’t. Most of our dams’ are destroyed. So are most bridges. Some were fired on, others were washed out in the floods that followed the dams. The earthquakes got more. Mr. President, the United States is chopped up into a series of isolated regions, and there’s not much we can do about it.

“The interstate highway system is destroyed. There are secondary roads and old highways, but travel on them has not been safe. Sometimes they let big trucks alone, not always. No train is safe. Ships are-often fired on.”

“Even now?” the President asked. “After using Mr. Dawson’s symbol?”

They all looked at Carlotta Dawson. For a moment she met their gaze with a smile, then she looked down at the table.

She doesn’t know about Archangel. Shouldn’t they tell her? She deserves that much — “I was just coming to that,” Mrs. Fuller said. “So far we have no confirmed report of a vehicle or installation marked with the ‘harmless’ symbol being fired on. We’ve been somewhat careful about where we use it—”

“Good,” the President said. “That’s vital. We must not abuse that symbol. Mr. Speaker?”

“Yes, Mr. President?”

“We need new legislation, making it an act of treason to misuse the snout ‘harmless’ symbol. I would appreciate it if you would get that done immediately.”

The Speaker nodded slowly. “If you think that’s wise—”

“It’s vital, Mr. Speaker. If you insist on knowing why, I’ll tell you at another time—”

“Thank you, no.”

“I want strict enforcement,” President Coffey said. “Any law enforcement agency is authorized to stop attempted abuse of that symbol by any means required, including destruction of the offending installation. That’s important.”

The Chief of Staff wrote in his book. “Yes, sir. I’ll get the executive order out right away.”

“I can understand the need,” General Toland said. “But the troops sure won’t like taking casualties.”

“Tell them to shut up and soldier,” Admiral Carrell said.