“No, you haven’t,” Sheklov said fervently, and felt a shiver go down his spine. In a sense, the fact that Earth had not long ago dissolved into a nuclear holocaust was due to this man at his side. It was awe-inspiring to reflect on that.
“So tell me,” he continued when he had recovered from his brief access of wonder, “what would happen if -say-New York were wiped off the map by a total conversion reaction?”
“A-what?” Turpin jerked in his seat. Ash fell from his cigarette to his thigh. He brushed at it, and missed.
“Total-conversion, I said. Well?”
“Well! Uh . . .” Turpin licked his lips. “Well, it would depend on whether anything had been detected coming down from orbit.”
“Something would have.” –
“Well, them Uh. . : Well, everything in the sky not accounted for by the flight-plan at Aerospace HQ would be taken out by ground missiles. That’s automatic. Then the orbital hardware would be activated, and you’d lose the tovs.”
“Tobs?”
“Tovs. Didn’t they give you that? Careless! Short for tovarich. That’s what we call your manned satellites.”
You: we. Force of habit probably. Camouflage. But Sheklov found himself wondering how deep the camouflage went in Turpin’s mind after a quarter of a century.
“Is there a lot of orbital hardware?”
“Enough,” Turpin said, and gave a thin smile. “Sorry, but you might let slip something you’re not supposed to know.”
Sheklov allowed him the petty victory. He said, “And then. . ?”
“Within about two minutes, the Nightsticks would be homing on their targets. They’re solid-fuelled inertial guided missiles with-”
“Yes, we know about those. Thanks to you.”
He said it deliberately, to determine how much the reminder would affect Turpin. The answer was-severely. He stuttered for several seconds.
“Anyway(” he pursued. “Within eight minutes and thirty seconds, twelve thousand megatons would go down on East Bloc territory. And if there were another-”
Sheklov held up his hand. “The world’s most perfect defensive system. Yes. We’ve taken great care for many years to avoid tripping this country’s deadly burglar alarms, but they still exist. which means that people must think they’re still necessary.”
“We’re doing our best to cure that!” Turpin said with a hint of anxiety. “Though naturally in my position I daren’t ”
“Daren’t do anything that might cast suspicion on your cover,” Sheklov cut in. “Sure, we understand just how tough security can be over here. But what’s your response to the news that some American city may well be converted into raw energy in the near future?”
A haunted expression came and went on Turpin’s face, as though for the first time in years he was reviewing the implications of setting off twelve thousand megatons of
nuclear explosive. He said, “You mean the Chinese have-”
“Chinese, hell. The Chinese don’t have a total-conversion reaction( Nobody has it, down here.”
Understanding began to turn Turpin’s cheeks to gray.
“Yes,” Sheklov said with a nod. “Out near Pluto we’ve met-someone else.”
Who?
Well, one thing-so Sheklov had been told-was definite. They couldn’t be from this part of the galaxy, or even from this part of the cosmos. Because their ship sparkled. Even at the orbit of Pluto it was continually being touched by dust particles. On contact, they vanished into energy. Which demonstrated that the vessel, and hence by logic the system where it originated, must be contra terrene.
The aliens didn’t seem to mind. Apparently they could take care of that problem. They could take care of the human race just as easily, if they chose.
Or, more precisely: They could arrange for the human race to take care of itself.
“They’re far ahead of us,” Sheklov said when Turpin’s gray face had started back towards its normal color. “We’re afraid of them. So far we haven’t managed to communicate anything to them, although we’ve been trying for more than three years. Somehow or other we must establish rapport, because if we can’t convince them we’re fit to get along with they’re not only able but apparently willing to set us back a thousand years. In the way I suggested-by turning an American city into energy.”
“If you can’t communicate with them, how do you know?” Turpin snapped.