Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1)(55)

Even the president has to tweak her speeches to acknowledge the fact that there are other sentient life-forms in the universe. You’d be surprised how hard it is to fit God and aliens in the same sentence without sounding corny.

Most importantly, everyone, including world leaders, now knows there are beings out there capable of building formidable weapons so advanced that we probably would not stand a chance if they chose to attack us.

—They would eradicate us. They could probably do it from a distance.

—Exactly. It’s a reality check for everyone, and it makes all our territorial or trade disputes seem just a little pettier. It wasn’t a cataclysm, like an asteroid hitting the Earth or anything like that, but it was a traumatic moment, and traumatic moments have a way of bringing people together. I think this is changing the way we view ourselves. That change may be slow and imperceptible, but it’s happening, I guarantee it.

—I sincerely hope you are correct. My deepest wish is for this discovery to redefine alterity for all of us.

—Alterity?

—The concept of “otherness.” What I am is very much a function of what I am not. If the “other” is the Muslim world, then I am the Judeo-Christian world. If the other is from thousands of light-years away, I am simply human. Redefine alterity and you can erase boundaries.

—See, I knew you weren’t that cynical. While you’re here, the president wanted me to touch base with you, see what you thought a good timeline would be to get her back.

—When I told your predecessor it was not a permanent solution, I did not mean we could get it back whenever we wanted. It has only been four months.

—I know. I know. It’s just…There’s a lot happening right now. The president just wants to know what her options are.

—I am aware of no significant technological development in the last three months, none that pertain to our deep-sea-retrieval capabilities anyway. You can tell the president her options are exactly what they were yesterday, or four months ago, or before we ever heard of that giant hand in South Dakota.

—I told her you’d say that…Are you sure there’s nothing we can do?

—Yes.

—Yes?

—Yes. I am sure there is nothing we can do.

—How about this: Are you sure there’s nothing anyone else can do to get it back? Having lost the robot is one thing, but I’d hate to see her show up on television with a Chinese flag painted on her chest.

—Like I said, I am unaware of any such scientific or technological development. I would be surprised if the Chinese, or anyone else, had made any significant progress in that area without anyone else knowing about it. That being said, it is not entirely out of the realm of possibilities.

—How would you go about making sure someone else doesn’t get it out first?

—You cannot stop anyone from grabbing it if you cannot reach that depth yourself. I would strongly suggest multiplying federal funding for research in deep-sea exploration by, shall we say, a thousandfold, if you have not already. I am absolutely certain other governments have done so before the first piece ever hit the bottom of the ocean.

—You make it sound like this is a race.

—I do. It is.

—So, you’re saying this is the space race all over again. We’re racing with the Russians, and God knows who else, to the far depths of the Earth, and whoever gets there first wins it all. Is that the gist of it?

—Unless you find a way to turn enemy into ally, that sums it up quite well.

—Are you suggesting we work with Russia on this thing?

—I cannot tell you if you should, only that you could. Most people forgot, but in 1963 Kennedy did offer to cooperate with Moscow to reach the moon. Had he not met with such an untimely death, the first lunar landing might have been a joint venture between the United States and the USSR.

—Somehow, I don’t see that happening.

—I suppose that is what you meant by “slow and imperceptible change.” Is there anything else I can help you with? I am on a fairly tight schedule.

—No. I guess not. Not unless you can get North Korea to shut down their nuclear program.

—What have they done this time?

—Third underground test this year. Only, this one looks like the real thing. In the past, they would just blow up a whole lot of explosives underground to make us think they had nukes. This time’s different. Japan has detected radiation at the site.

With anyone else, we’d play the strength card and threaten to level the entire country…but they don’t really seem to care. I’m not sure where that leaves us.

—A preemptive strike?

—As far as the president is concerned, that’s what you call an “act of war” if you’re the one making it.

—Then I am afraid I have nothing to offer. It pains me to say it, but I have always been thoroughly bewildered by North Korea. They cannot be threatened, as they feel themselves superior to the one making the threat. They cannot be reasoned with, and most importantly, they are 100 percent convinced of their righteousness, so they cannot be bought. Megalomaniacs with delusions of grandeur are notoriously difficult to handle, but how generations of them can follow one another is beyond me.

—…I’m sorry, my mind was drifting. I was thinking about racing the Russians to the trench. It’s gonna be hard to make a good speech out of that. We choose to go to the…ocean. We choose to go to the bottom of the ocean in this decade and do the other things…