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“Good.  Then you are the person I need for my new project.”
     
    Apoplectic, Henderson squealed, “Dr. Takagawa, please, we must not discuss such confidential information outside of secure areas.”
     
    Airily waving away Henderson’s warning, Takagawa said, “Professor Jackson won’t tell anyone—will he?”
     
    Jackson replied, “That depends.  What the hell kind of project are you working on?”
     
    “Approximately 30 hours ago, the Gagarin Telescope took a picture of an object entering the Solar System...”  Takagawa’s explanation continued for several minutes, concluding, “If the aliens turn out to be hostile, Earth will be almost totally defenseless.  The Terran Alliance’s Ministry of Public Safety is barely even a police force.  Unless the aliens end up being unarmed rioters, the Public Safety personnel will be useless.”
     
    Filling in the deductive gap, Jackson said, “And you want me to build an army for you that can present a credible deterrent to the aliens.”
     
    She shook her head.  “No, Professor Jackson.  I will build the army, the soldiers who can fight our war.  You will organize it.  You will tell me what I need to teach our soldiers to make them effective.  If it comes to it, you will devise the strategies we can use to defeat our enemy.”  Takagawa folded her arms, making Jackson even more aware of her slender figure.  “That is the job description.  You up to it?”
     
    Fear flooded Jackson’s brain as the basic human bias for the status quo filled him with doubt.  He didn’t know what kind of weapons the aliens would have.  He didn’t know what their logistics were like.  Hell, I don’t even know what they themselves look like and what can kill them.  I’m just a history professor.
     
    Another variable entered his mental calculus a split-second later.  He knew the Public Safety Ministry and its capabilities.  Led by incompetents and human resources types, they wouldn’t last five minutes in a real battle.  
     
    If I don’t do this job, someone less competent will be responsible.   Someone less competent will defend Dr. Takagawa and all the rest of humanity.
     
    The decision was made.  “You’re damn right I’m up for it.”
     
    Takagawa’s face broke into a tight smile.  “Excellent.  Welcome aboard.  Tell your boss that you’ve been requisitioned by the Terran Alliance.  If the President of Yale gives you any shit about your extended leave of absence, tell him the Alliance will not hesitate to cut off his grant funds.  This is life or death stuff.”
     
    She looked around his office.  “Are you ready to start?”
     
    Jackson didn’t hesitate.  “Yes.”
     
    “Then let’s go.  Gavin, you can get someone to pack up Professor Jackson’s effects, can’t you?”
     
    Henderson bobbed his head enthusiastically.  “Absolutely, Dr. Takagawa.”
     
    As Jackson walked out of his office, he didn’t give a moment’s thought to his effects, his tenure, or even the dozens of students who had lost their professor, thesis advisor, or mentor.  He thought only of the spaceship on the pictures shown to him by Emma Takagawa.

Chapter 7: Flower
     
    The First Representative struggled to pay attention to the fireworks technician.  She told herself that this was her work, the reason she was here in the first place.
     
    Normally, overseeing the Unification Day celebrations was one of the important executive functions managed by the Terran Alliance’s head of state.  Lian Flower had made a name for herself as Entertainment Minister by ensuring that such celebrations went off without a hitch and exhibited panache to boot.
     
    Now, however, she could think only of space, of the vessel her advisers told her was streaking toward Earth this very second.
     
    She finally interrupted the fireworks technician, who had been in the middle of a soliloquy on the beauty of purple-hued sparklers set atop the Terran Alliance Legislature