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minor
concession.
    Jess schooled her features to show nothing
of what went on in her mind. He wouldn’t come here unless they really needed
the money. No American president would ever bring this plan here if he could
act on his own. Paying for such a fleet might be possible but it would destroy
them in the end. “The best option would likely be to share the total costs
based on each member nation’s GDP,” she said.
    “Our thoughts exactly,” agreed Parnell.
“Even if that nation only pays a few million dollars, every bit will help. It
should help to keep the planet’s economies from self-destructing.”
    And if you tried on your own and failed, thought Jess, we would all have to learn a new
language when our new neighbors get here. A sudden thought prompted her.
“The fleet will be a permanent trust of the UN of course. The rest of the world
will hardly be keen on paying to provide the United States with such a potent
force.”
    The American looked as though he had been
expecting this. “As this fleet is proposed and designed by us, we believe it
should be led by an American,” he stated evenly.
    Jess nodded. “Led by an American general
officer, seconded to duty as a UN officer.” She saw the unmistakable tells of a
man who believes he has won and she finished her proposal. “The commanders of
the three carrier groups to be commanded by general officers and staff from the
three remaining nations of the ISS group.” She could see that this was not
being received well but she still plunged ahead with the final idea; one which
had just crystalized for her. “The fleet captain should be a general officer
from the Chinese military.”
    “How the hell do you expect such a
hodgepodge of different languages to work in combat?” Parnell was scraping the
bottom of the barrel with that excuse and had to know it.
    “The same way it works when you operate
with NATO. The working language of the fleet will have to be English and I’m
sure the nations who are going to be providing their hard-earned capital will
be able to find plenty of competent personnel who speak English.” And the
Chinese own a large portion of your national debt, she thought, looking
down at the coffee table. She looked back up at Parnell. “There is one more
thing,” her tone was darker.
    “What?” Parnell looked guarded.
    “I will need your support to sell this to
the General Assembly; we need a firm commitment from everyone for money and
material support. We will need all of the diplomatic pressure that you can
bring to bear and,” she paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, “and, God help
us, force.”
    “We've already been in touch with the PRC.”
Parnell sighed. "They will support this measure. The moment it passes the
vote downstairs, troops from both our countries will be boarding
transports."
     

Palm Island
    Miami, Florida
    January 9 th , 2026
    F rank took a pull on his beer and reflected on the changes a week
could make. When he had left for Finland on Tuesday, he would have assumed that
Saturday’s conversation would be the usual round of shop talk with Davidoff;
mutual bitching about the prima donnas that they had to deal with in building
cruise ships. Of course, there would have been the usual due paid to Davidoff’s
father, Ivan,  regarding his latest culinary delight – it was hot Italian
‘gator sausage this time – but it was a perfunctory performance.
    The conversation out in the back yard was
entirely about them – the aliens. Frank had learned about the attack on
the Mars station as he was sitting in a boardroom overlooking the half-built
hulk of the   Leviathan . He had thought the whole thing a joke or worse,
a distraction cooked up by one of his subcontractors. Frank knew that one of
the décor suppliers was being pressured by a rival cruise line to move them up
on their schedule. It would have no impact on the rival’s launch date but it
would almost certainly cost Frank a week that he didn’t