Magestic 2, p.117
Magestic 2, page 117
With Kennedy finally seating himself, his team fully taking up almost a third of the table, Jimmy stood. ‘If I may, Mister President, since I requested this meeting?’ Kennedy nodded. Jimmy extended greetings to all of the nationals in each native tongue, his Japanese practiced overnight with the help of the data-pad. Each foreign delegation came equipped with at least one translator, no less than four translators behind the President, one for each language, just in case there was any duplicity.
Only the German team had offered Jimmy a polite smile and handshake; the others remained guarded, stony-faced, yet curious about today’s meeting.
Jimmy sat. ‘Gentlemen, you are all now aware of just who I am, of what I am, and – for the most part - aware of just how capable I am. For the benefit of all, I will recap on the events of yesterday, since those events were carried out as a ... demonstration of just how capable I am. First, all electrical equipment in the Chinese city of Shanghai was destroyed. Can the Chinese delegation confirm this?’
‘We can, and we protest most strongly this unwarranted act or terrorism on the People’s city!’ They banged the table with fists.
‘Could the Chinese delegation also confirm ... that twelve of its aircraft were shot down as they flew towards Japan?’
They wagged fingers. ‘We are still investigating the causes of the loss of our aircraft.’
‘You lost your aircraft because of the defences I now have in place in the skies above Japan; no aircraft or missile will reach Japan from your shores. If you wish to try – whilst you are investigating – then please do so.’ Jimmy faced the Germans. ‘Could the German delegation please confirm the losses suffered by Russian soldiers east of Moscow?’
‘They were found to be dead, but we still don’t know exactly how they died.’
‘And how many died?’
‘We estimate more than three thousand.’
‘Would the Russians like to comment on their dead?’
‘We believe that only four hundred were killed, and we protest whatever illegal weapon was used to kill our people!’
‘For what it’s worth, I apologise for the deaths of your soldiers.’ He faced the Germans. ‘Could the German delegation confirm what it found when its soldiers landed back in Germany?’
The Germans were hesitant. ‘We ... discovered that all of the Arabs were dead, from a weapon that we could not identify.’
‘And the Arabs fighting your soldiers at the front, east of Paris?’ Jimmy asked.
‘They ... are also all dead.’
‘Would the American delegation like to report what it found out about the drugs supplied?’
Kennedy offered, ‘We injected a group of soldiers that had suffered sixty percent burns in an accident, and ... it cured them completely, hardly a mark left. Incredible.’
‘And the German delegation?’
‘We have also used the drugs on soldiers who were injured, the results ... astounding.’
‘I hereby offer to make those drugs available, in reasonable quantities, to all of the nations represented here. I will also make available to all here the technology to convert coal into oil very cheaply, lowering the need for oil. That cost saving, together with a massive saving in the public health bill, should boost all of your economies.’ He faced the Chinese. ‘You don’t have an economy yet, but someday you will. Still, it’s the thought that counts.’
Jimmy took a moment. ‘In addition to what has already been revealed here today, I can reveal that I expect Germany to be free of Arab fighters within ten days, ahead of schedule, and that Europe will be free of fighters in six weeks. That freedom ... will be provided by my soldiers, although our German friends can make whatever claims they wish in their own newspapers.
‘In addition to the small unit of soldiers I now have in Europe, a larger force has arrived in Africa, and will sweep that continent of The Brotherhood in about two months. Thereafter, they will attack North Africa and the Middle East, eradicating the fighters. None of the nations here will then be under threat from them. It is then my intention to start rebuilding Africa, since it has oil and ore that all nations can benefit from.
‘Gentlemen, before we come to the important part, I will first say this: you argue, you’ve fought wars, and you’re all opposed to each other, but the rise of The Brotherhood was a threat that would have affected you all. May I have a show of hands … for those who disagree with my policy of removing The Brotherhood?’
No one raised a hand.
‘Gentlemen, you just all voted together on an issue. Progress. Please raise your hand if you do not wish to receive advanced medicines to help your people?’
Again no one raised a hand.
‘That’s twice you’ve all voted together, which is probably two times more than you’ve done in the past forty years. Progress. You see, gentlemen, there are a few things that you can all agree upon, and we’re here to see if we can negotiate our way to a few others, since you all live on a small round planet.
‘OK, coming to the important part. As of ... well, little more than two hours ago, I placed in a high orbit almost eighty drone aircraft, each capable of radar tracking, radar jamming, radio jamming, and each has the ability to disable a ballistic missile in flight, or a high-flying and fast aircraft. Those drone aircraft have been positioned above Japan, along the west coast of America, the east coast of America, Canada, and above Europe. As of two hours ago, no ballistic missile fired ... will reach its intended target.’
The delegates checked translations, many conversation breaking out in many languages, as Kennedy queried, ‘That’s a ... total blanket system?’
‘It is, Mister President. Feel free to test fire a missile or two if you like.’ He faced the Japanese, as Kennedy’s team whispered comments. ‘No missile launched by you will reach America, or China.’ He faced the Germans. ‘None of your missiles will reach America or Russia, but you are free to try a test firing or two.’
The Japanese delegation got up and walked out, Jimmy not even lifting his head towards them. The Germans protested the missile shield, but Jimmy simply faced the Americans. ‘They’ll all need time to grasp this new reality. We should retire.’ He stood, the American delegation following him up, and out of the hotel.
Twenty minutes later, Jimmy joined Kennedy in the situation room at the White House.
‘What you said, it wasn’t just some ploy?’ Kennedy began.
‘No, test fire a missile from sea towards America, see what happens.’
‘And who controls the missile shield?’
‘My people do of course, but for the most part it’s completely automated. The drone aircraft are solar powered, and they can fly around for years.’
‘It’ll stop all incoming missiles?’ a General asked.
Jimmy nodded.
‘And if we fired a missile?’ the same General posed.
‘Fire a nuclear missile? At who? Who do you wish to kill?’
‘That’s our call,’ the General said.
‘If you can give me a good reason, I’ll kill them for you. So, who do you want to kill?’ Jimmy pressed.
‘We can’t predict how the others will react,’ the same man said.
‘If they fire their missiles - and you don’t trust my system, then by all means fire your own missiles if you wish to. But trust me when I say that their missiles won’t reach you. Besides, I told you I would supply you with a missile shield, and you were keen. What’s changed?’
‘We figured we’d operate it,’ a General responded.
‘What’s the difference? It’s a blanket system.’
‘How long will those drones up there last?’ a man asked.
‘It’s my intention to leave them there till we supply you with ground units. You can, if you wish, then have the drones removed. But, if you don’t operate the ground units properly, a missile may get through. You may lose a city or two, New York or Washington. That’s your call, and if you’re not happy I can move the drones over America and place them over Japan and Europe.’
‘They’d get the umbrella then, not us,’ Kennedy complained.
‘Then make your mind up. Keep them or not?’
‘We’ll keep them for now, till the ground units arrive,’ Kennedy quickly insisted. ‘When will that be?’
‘When we have a decent air bridge to Kenya,’ Jimmy emphasised. ‘We can’t bring in units through Germany, now can we?’
‘You can’t open a portal here, in the States?’ Kennedy asked.
‘No, the physical location in each world must be the same, and we have two; one in Kenya, one in Canada.’
‘Canada is closer,’ Kennedy emphasised.
‘That particular portal is locked open to the world in 1938, so is the German portal. So long as I have soldiers going back and forth I can’t switch it off for long,’ Jimmy lied. He faced an Air Force General. ‘Do you have a heavy transport that can reach Kenya?’
‘Just about, at maximum range.’
‘And by ship from Kenya?’
‘Two weeks sail time at least,’ an Admiral put in.
‘My shield will last fifty years, gentlemen,’ Jimmy pointed out. ‘Two weeks is nothing. And you could sail some av-gas around to Mombasa, create a small base, and link up with our guys.’
Kennedy faced the Admiral. ‘Do so, straight away.’
‘You’ll be involved with Africa for a long time,’ Jimmy emphasised. ‘It has a great deal of oil that you can pump, so establish a few bases, and not just temporary bases.’
‘Why did you cut short the meeting?’ Kennedy probed.
‘Because they each need to digest the new reality, and they’ll talk to each other and confirm detail, they’ll even test-fire a few missiles, and then – in a few days – we’ll talk again. It’s one thing to tell someone you have a big stick, it’s another for them to believe it. And by the way, my people are currently tracking twenty-four German missile subs, and sixteen Japanese subs.’
The Admiral sat upright. ‘You can track them underwater?’
‘Of course we can.’
‘Could you destroy them as well?’ Kennedy asked.
‘Of course, and that’s on my list of things to consider. But I’ll need to bring in more drones, and different types.’
‘How do you control them?’ a General asked.
‘Pop over to Africa and have a look. You can try flying one.’
‘How do they receive instructions?’
‘We have communications drones at sixty thousand feet spread around the globe; they relay signals back and forth. All solar powered. They also detect up-drafts and down-drafts and make use of them to save battery power.’
‘Could you ... knock out a satellite?’ a General risked.
‘Sure. What did you have in mind?’
‘If you knocked out their satellites and subs at the same time...’
Jimmy focused on the man. ‘What, you could launch a pre-emptive strike ... and murder tens of millions of Japanese and German women and children?’
The General who has made the suggestion seemed to resent Jimmy’s comments, and turned to Kennedy.
Jimmy finally said, ‘I came here to end the fighting, and to save the planet, gentlemen; perhaps you should keep that in mind. Where I come from there are no wars, and people don’t have ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Husbands and wives still argue, the traffic is still terrible, but bombs don’t fall out of the sky.
‘Someday soon, gentlemen, I’ll disarm Germany, and I’ll disarm Japan, Russia, and China. And if, at any point before or after, you make an unnecessary aggressive move, then the people from my world will get very upset about it. They’ll go back in time, and find the President most directly responsible for the decision to attack another nation, and deal with him when he was young – perhaps blinding him.’
‘Blinding him?’ Kennedy repeated.
‘A humane way of making sure that he never takes office,’ Jimmy explained. ‘Gentlemen, you’re dealing with time travellers. If, at any point, you piss them off, they’ll simply wind back the clock – and cut your balls off.’
‘That removes our right to govern,’ a General protested.
‘You’ve been trying to build your own time machine for forty years. Using it would have removed the right to govern for every government on this planet, for your predecessors, and those administrations that may have followed you.’ He waited, his hands wide. ‘Would it not have? Fact is, America did develop a time machine, just not here, and that missile shield you’re now benefitting from – it was mostly designed in America. It’s use here? Sanctioned by the man in the White House, voted in by the American public, with your best interests at heart. And if you’re not happy with any of that, you can fly to Africa, step through and tell the current US President that; he could try and override me. But I don’t think you’ll sell him on the idea of a pre-emptive strike - and the massacre of civilians.’
‘We wouldn’t attack unless we were attacked, or under threat,’ the same man insisted.
‘Now that you have a missile shield - you can’t be attacked, unless by conventional forces. And they won’t get very far with my people here, will they.’
‘Any more surprises?’ Kennedy finally asked.
‘That missile shield was not a surprise; I said I’d do it, and you all agreed to it. I’ll try and be a little more specific in future.’ Jimmy took a breath. ‘Gentlemen, let’s move on. I can remove the threats from Germany and Japan, The Brotherhood and the communists. Peace ... is achievable. But when that peace comes, you must consider the economic position of America, because twenty years from now that will be the battleground.
‘I’m prepared to give you a route-map that will make this country the richest, and with the largest economy by far, an edge over the others. I can’t do that without your kind cooperation, and some tough decisions may need to be taken along the way, especially the changing of attitudes towards old enemies. If you want to be top dog in the decades ahead you’ll need to buy cars from Japan and Germany, ore from Africa, and sell electronics around the world. You’ll make aircraft that I’ll help you design, and you’ll sell them to the other countries, along with computers.
‘You’ll need to secure oil reserves for the future, and expand your manufacturing base so that you export more, much more, by a factor of around hundred in the first decade alone.’
‘A hundred fold increase?’ Kennedy repeated.
‘Yes, and it’s achievable,’ Jimmy insisted. ‘I can get you the oil you need, the ore, and nudge you in the right direction. Other nations may not like that - in fact they’ll definitely not like it - but as you do better, so will they. Trade-wise, this planet is around forty years behind where it should be, so I’ll be aiming to fill that gap. You’ll even trade with China and Russia. You don’t have to like them, and you don’t have to agree with their principles to sell them things or to buy ore.
‘Gentlemen, your greatest battle is about to begin, and that’s the race to be the biggest and best economy. If you care about your kids and grandchildren, start that race today, the first step being Africa.’
The next day the Japanese fired a test missile towards China, the missile dropping into the sea. A second and third missile met with a similar fate, two jet bomber crews having to eject into the sea.
The Americans fired a small missile from California southwest into the Pacific, telemetry lost. A second missile fared no better. The Germans test fired two missiles towards the Arctic, both lost, a high altitude spy plane losing control, its pilot ejecting. And the poor people of Shanghai were roasting in a late heat wave, no ceiling fans working, or much anything else working save a few old tractors.
Jimmy requested another meeting, and three days after the initial meeting another was scheduled, to be held at the same hotel. Familiar faces gathered, familiar stony facades adopted, the same seats taken. The Germans again sat between the Japanese and the Chinese, since those delegates would not sit next to each other, the Russians next to the Chinese and not the Japanese, since Japan occupied Vladivostok. Jimmy sat between the Japanese and the Americans, and war over the seating plan was averted.
With the overseas delegates looking as if they had been prodded into attending the meeting with a cattle-iron, Jimmy began this time without asking Kennedy. ‘Gentlemen, welcome back, and I hope you all now have a better understanding of just what you’re up against. You’re up against people from the year 2047, armed with weapons that you could only dream about. And even if you captured some of their technology you would not understand it, nor be able to manufacture it.
‘As I explained at the last meeting, we’ve placed a missile defence shield above your countries. No ballistic missile will get through. That was not an aggressive move on our part, nor intended to give anyone an advantage over others; we simply don’t want to see you kill each other. We will, however, try and achieve a peace through negotiation. Sometimes I will offer rewards, sometime I will threaten you. You can each take the easy path, or the hard path.
‘I’ve already made it clear that I’ll supply advanced technology, peaceful advanced technology, to assist the development of your countries to the benefits of your citizens, including medicines, and it would be nice if you saw my interference as a positive thing. I don’t actually believe that for a moment, I believe that I will have to use force, but still ... I’m an optimist.
‘So, gentlemen, let’s get down to specifics, since you can each then see exactly what I’m after. Let’s start with Greater Germany. I offered to give you back certain countries, in return for you holding free and fair elections in smaller European countries inside of a year. I’m removing the threat of The Brotherhood from your lands, something that you would not have achieved by yourselves. Without my assistance you would have all been killed, or overrun. Members of the German delegation, I will offer to help re-build Europe with you, but such a re-building would only be possible if you disclose to the peoples of Europe who I am.
