Larry Niven - Footfall

“They do look like elephants,” Admiral Carrell said.

“Yes, sir,” Jenny said. “But they’re not really elephants.”

“No. They’re invaders,” General Toland said.

The President studied the screens carefully, then turned to Jenny. “This ceremony. What was it?”

“Before they’ll let anyone leave the area they control, they make you lie down on your back, arms stretched out overhead. Then one of the-aliens-puts his foot on you. After that you’re free to go.”

“And your sci-fi people think that’s reasonable?” the President asked.

“Yes, sir. The way the aliens are built, they must think in terms of trampling their enemies beneath their feet. They may be the biggest animals on their planet. Most Earth species have a surrender ritual. This is theirs.”

The President nodded slowly.

God, he looks awful. I wonder if he got any sleep at all?

“Do your experts have any theories on what the invaders want?” the President demanded.

“The Earth,” Jenny said.

General Toland was adamant. “Kick their butts, don’t piss on them,” he said. “Mr. President, we cannot commit our forces piecemeal! You’ve got to let me gather my strength before we go in there.”

“American citizens are being killed there. Property destroyed. God damn it, they’ve invaded the United States .” David Coffey’s voice was cold with anger. His hands gripped the arms of his chair. “We have to do something! What’s the Army for if it can’t defend the nation?”

Toland fought visibly to control himself.

“That is hardly fair, Mr. President,” Admiral Carrell said. “The Army is not generally deployed to fight enemies within the nation.”

“If they’d let us call up some reservists before that goddam ship got here,” General Toland muttered. “Mr. President, I’m doing all I can. Our best units are in Europe and Central America and Lebanon , and there’s no chance we can get those troops home. Not while the enemy dominates space. They can see everything we do!”

See it and kill it, Jenny thought. Lasers for the airplanes, kinetic energy weapons for ships…

“So when will we be able to do something for our people, General Toland?” the President demanded.

“Two more days,sir. I hope. Mr. President, we can’t mass our forces! The commander at Fort Knox loaded tanks onto a train to send west. They hit the train. Their air defenses are superb. Anything we send into that area either gets zapped from space or hit by a ground-launched missile.”

“Or worse,” Jenny said.

They all looked at her.

“They’re setting up ground-based laser defense systems. The reports are just coming in. I’ll have them on the screens in a few minutes.”

“Lasers,” the President said.

“Yes, sir. Much better than ours.”

“So what the hell are they doing with them?” General Toland demanded.

Jenny shook her head. “We don’t know, sir. It appears they’re setting up a strong perimeter defense inside the area they control — but we don’t know, because we can’t get inside there to find out.”

“So they have it all their way.” The President’s voice was low and tired, as if he’d already been defeated.

It frightened Jenny. “Not all their way, sir,” she said. “Some reports get out. Mostly ham radio. They don’t get to broadcast long before something smashes them. Also, there’s bound to be resistance. National Guardsmen. Farmers with deer rifles.”

“Sure, they’ll fight,” Toland said. “Even without orders.”

Jenny nodded. “But they’ll be disorganized. We can’t communicate!”

“And there’s nothing else we can do?” the President asked. There was despair in his voice. “With all our power, all our nuclear arsenal-can’t we use nukes on them?”

“They’re all mixed in with our people,” Admiral Carrell said.

“General, do something. Hurt them,” the President said. “Hit them hard. Isn’t there any place where there are a lot of them, and none of our people?”

“None, no. Not many, yes,” Toland said.

The President stared grimly at the screens. “Hurt them. Now. It will help American morale.”

“But, sir—”

“That was an order, General.”

Toland snapped to attention. “Yes, sir. I take it you don’t want a general bombardment.”

“No. But they can’t have it all their way. We have to hurt them. How else will we drive them out of America ?”

Why are we so sure we can do it? Jenny almost blurted it out.

“We may not be able to drive them out,” Admiral Carrell said. “We may simply have to kill them all.”

“It may come to that,” General Toland said. “It comes under the heading of destroying the country in order to save it. What we need is neutron weapons.”

“What would they do?”

“They kill without destroying the cities.” General Toland drummed his fingers against the glass wall of the office. “If our people are inside, behind stone walls, in basements-don’t most Kansans have root cellars? Places underground?”

“Many do,” the President said.

“A few feet of dirt would protect our people,” Toland said. “If the elephants are out in the open, we could zap them without destroying Kansas. Only trouble is, we don’t have the bombs.”

“Why not?”

“The few we have are in Europe ,” Admiral Carrell said carefully. “Because of public protest, we were never allowed to manufacture any large number of neutron weapons. I have asked the laboratories at Sandia and Los Alamos to try to assemble makeshift enhanced radiation weapons, but they cannot give us a schedule for their delivery.”

“But this is insane,” the President said. “A few thousand elephants-how many are there, anyway?’

“We don’t know,” Jenny admitted. “Certainly fewer than fifty thousand.”

“Even so, it must be a significant part of their ground combat strength,” General Toland said. “More troops than they can afford

to lose. If we kill them all, they may have to leave us alone in future.”

“They still control space,” Admiral Carrell said. “Major Crichton, you look like a lady who wants to say something.”

“Yes, sir,” Jenny answered. “You asked me to get the science fiction people to work. It wasn’t hard. They’ve got a number of ideas about the war.”

“Well?” the President demanded.

“Sir, I think it would be better if you heard for yourself.”

David Coffey frowned. Then suddenly he grinned. “Sure, why not? As you say, they’re the only experts we have.”

When night came, David Morgan still wasn’t home. No gin, either, Carlotta thought. Only two inches in this bottle. She’d found blackberry wine in the root cellar. It would have to do.

They sat by candlelight in the living room. There were distant sounds of thunder, and far to the east and south were flashes of light.

The skies were clear overhead. Juana sat next to a kerosene lamp with a Jane Austen novel.

“Aren’t you worried?” Carlotta asked.

“Sure, but what good does that do? David’s got a good car and a rifle. He can’t phone. What should I do?”

“I don’t know. What about—” She paused, and after a moment there were more distant sounds. “About that?”

“Nothing we can do. Should we run away? Where would we go? It’s miles to the nearest house, and Lucy can’t walk that far.”

“Don’t you have another car?”

“Not one that works. Even if we did, where would you rather be?”

“I don’t know. Want some wine?”

“No.”

And you don’t think I should, either. To hell with you. Carlotta drank the blackberry wine. It was much too sweet.

Morning came, bright and clear and cloudless, a glorious Kansas day except for ominous black clouds rising far away in the east. There was still no sign of Professor Morgan. Carlotta and Juana sat outside on the patio with coffee. The night sounds were gone. An hour passed, then part of another; then there were noises, and dust to the west.