The Power of Ten Book Four: Dynamo

“Miss Ouilette,” the spokesman for Great Britain began, “you have been called here today as an expert witness, and hopefully you are willing to give the assembled nations here an explanation.” He glanced sourly at the Tribal, Russian, and Wakandan ambassadors, who looked back innocently.

Well, at least it wasn’t the American ambassador, who was a starch-collared doofus from fine inbreeding with a chip on his shoulder. “Go on, Mr. Willoughby,” DiDi replied neutrally, her green eyes staying fixed on him.

“Yes, well,” he nearly coughed under the intensity of her gaze. “There have been disconcerting rumors being bandied about of massive military build-ups on Venus and its moon by our supposed alien allies.” He didn’t look at the three ambassadors this time. “In addition, it has been noticed that large numbers of personnel have been moved from Terra into space, and we’ve lost contact with our countrymen out there.

“We want to know what is going on, if we have to worry about our supposed allies and protectors coming down to conquer us all, and if we need to be ready for such a turn of events!” he stated decisively.

DiDi’s eyes changed to those looking at an idiot. “Mr. Ambassador, have you been read in on the history of the Xandarans, the Whoberis, the Corbinites, and the Galadorans?” she replied calmly.

“Er, yes?” the ambassador replied after a moment.

“Were your intelligence services so incompetent as to not verify the veracity of those reports through third, fourth, fifth, and sixth parties? Particularly those of their enemies?” DiDi continued archly.

“Er...” the man hesitated.

“Unlike your own nation, none of those four powers has a history of imperialism and invading other sovereign nations and worlds. Those records go back for over ten thousand years. While I’m sure Britain would be happy to find an excuse to invade them if they could, judging by your own history, and seizing as much technology and forced labor as would be possible, all four races are extremely noble in their customs, history, behavior, and frames of mind. They have simply evolved past many of the competitive instincts of our own people, and into a more mutually beneficial relationship with one another and their allies.

“In short, there is far more chance of Britain undertaking military and espionage activities against them than there is of the same thing being returned. What they need to learn of us they can do so from public media, which is readily accessible and broadcast to them.”

He flushed slightly, as her tone made it quite clear she knew about some of those operations that Britain had run, unwilling to trust to any sources but themselves for their information. The fact she and those races knew was left unspoken, and they had simply let it go.

“This level of secrecy and the amount of manpower involved still demands an explanation, Miss Ouilette. Our analysts say there can be no reasonable explanation except arming for war... but we have not been informed of war against whom!” Ambassador Pritchard from America broke in quickly.

DiDi glanced at the three ambassadors, and saw them mentally sigh. “That is because you can’t do a damn thing about it, Ambassador Pritchard. Getting the public worked up over this threat is like telling them Galactus is going to pop the sun in a week. End of the world riots would start up, people would start hoarding and sticking close to home, the economy would start breaking down, and life would collapse before anything really happened.

“There is a multi-galactic threat whelming up, and Terra and its allies are gathering all the manpower and hardware they can to fight it and do their part.

“Non-enhanced human troops are going to be virtually useless in a conflict of that size, and Terra does not have the stellar travel capacity or weapons production technology to contribute to the cause. We don’t even have the raw materials production to contribute to any reasonable measure.

“Thus, the population of the planet is being left in the dark, because there’s no reason to do otherwise. If the resistance fails, the population of Terra which cannot be evacuated will die quickly, probably within the span of an hour, and we’ll lose our homeworld.”

The ambassadors there were looking at her in disbelief, then at the Tribal, Russian, and Wakandan ambassadors, who were saying nothing in denial.

“Who is threatening us, then?” Ambassador Willoughby challenged her. “Surely there must be something we could contribute, if this is not some hoax!”

“Our universe is being invaded by races from approximately ten thousand different galaxies from the Negative Zone.”

They blinked, and halted in shock, trying to process that. They weren’t dumb, even if they were suspicious. It was just... the numbers were too big.

“Of course, only a fraction of those are something we have to worry about, namely the forces and races that are going to be attacking the Shi’ar, Kree, and Skrull Empires. Once they conquer those, their remaining elements will combine and attack here, sweeping away the remnants of the Badoon and rapidly eliminating the many minor powers in the Milky Way, such as ourselves.

“All three of those galactic empires have basically acknowledged the fact they are going to lose the fight, their empires, and their galaxies. Their only recourse now is to eliminate enough of the invaders that the invaders do not follow them as they abandon their homeworlds en masse.”

“The-the Negative Zone?” repeated Ambassador Pritchard faintly.

“There is a reason the many attempts in the States to reach the Negative Zone have ended so miserably and explosively, Ambassador,” DiDi informed him icily. “People kindly setting up convenient Portals to help the N-Zoners reach Terra and our surrounding space directly while calling it ‘exploration into alternate energy sources’ or something similar is not something to be tolerated, and I believe has been dealt with lethally and repeatedly.

“If you care to check your records, it is considered a High Guard Interdiction matter by Primus. Decree number 104, I believe? Almost eight years ago now.” Right after the whole initial breach by Blastaar. DiDi let the words tail off as she flicked glances at four other ambassadors on the panel there, all of them flushing. No, no, Primus didn’t issue that Decree because he wanted to safeguard the planet. He’s hiding something from us, and we’re going to find out what, and get rich!, DiDi knew they’d been thinking, having to stop her lip from rising in scorn.

“The entire populations of species from over ten thousand worlds will be involved in just one of the prongs of the attacks coming at us. There is no going back for these races; they will come, conquer a world in this new young universe of ours and live on, or they will go extinct. Their universe is dying, having less than a hundred thousand years left, and they have decided to take this one last gamble to live on.

“This is a Wave of Annihilation coming, and Terra does not have the tools to fight it, so we are only able to help those who do.

“Sit back in your chairs and relax, Ambassadors. This is a fight you can do nothing about. Win or lose, you are meaningless. If we win, nothing will change for you. If we lose, Terra is doomed, along with the rest of the solar system.”

“You... speak as if you are fighting in this war too, Doctor?” Ambassador Starch-Collar, er, Pritchard asked hesitantly.

“I have been joining my sister and the High Guard in certain activities in the Negative Zone that are having almost, but not quite, no impact on the incoming invasion.” She let that hang for a moment. “Things like destroying planets and fleets of starships and rendering whole sapient species extinct as we do it, all because they want to come here and keep living, and are willing to kill us all to do it.

“Don’t even raise the hope of peace. Don’t even think about surrender. The one is impossible, and the other is just dying without fighting. They will wipe out humanity without hesitation to secure the survival of their species, whatever species it may be, just as they will all the other species and worlds out there.

“For that reason, any interfacing with the Negative Zone is a terminable event, and we are watching very closely for them. We’ve managed to keep N-Zoners off Terra for the moment, and that is one of the reasons they are going after all those Galactic Empires first, instead of after us.”

The ambassadors present all swallowed. Doubtless some urgent phone calls to the leaders of some secret projects were going to be following up here soon.

“Could you inform us of some of the things you are doing?” Ambassador Willoughby managed to stammer.

DiDi narrowed her eyes. “You have neither the need to know or the clearance to be told that, Ambassador Willoughby. You might as well start blabbing about MI-6 operations to random bystanders on the street. Especially the ones about speaking to goats and stuff, for their relevance.”

He flushed again, wanting to chide her about showing some respect, but could see from the flatness of her gaze that his idiotic question had just stripped that from her.

“Surely there must be some way we can contribute!” Ambassador Pritchard protested, and there were even murmurs from some of the other ambassadors in the room.

“If you could contribute, you’ve already been contacted for volunteers to go into space. Yes, that is the purpose they were recruited for, above and beyond exposing them to LaGrange and the galactic community.

“The only possible thing you could contribute is more highly-trained and trustworthy personnel, and you don’t have them. The various Star Corps up there take who they take, and that is all. You don’t get a say in their recruitment standards.

“As for resources and technology, there is nothing on Terra here that is useful to them that they can’t mine faster and produce easier elsewhere with their own technology.

“Most of Terra is a primitive and backward place to our alien allies, gentlemen. Nevertheless, some of us have made a fine enough showing that they’ve entered into an alliance with us and are going to be doing their best to work with those worthy of working with them. They have an excellent awareness of conditions and politics down here on Terra, and consider them a sort of morbid, barbaric entertainment.

“Regardless of that, they’ve found enough good things about some of us to work with us, for which the High Guard and Ultra Corps are extremely grateful. Terra has a bright future ahead of it, if only it can reach for the stars together.

“If your constituents consider this judgement rude and arrogant, that is fine. You’re not the ones in alliance with them, and likely you’re not ever going out to the stars. If the unfriendly stars come for us, well, it wasn’t for lack of trying.”

“You cannot expect us to just rely on you to save us out of faith!” Ambassador Pritchard protested.

Her blue eyes narrowed instantly. “You mean, like you have been doing for the last forty years, Ambassador Pritchard, and the world for centuries before that?” she replied coolly, and he flushed. “Primus and the High Guard serve at their behest, not yours, and I won’t even go into how many things that could have ended life on this world have been dealt with by them and other brave souls who are not beholden to you, only their own senses of duty.

“Ignorance and faith are the two most common forms of insulation from the true horrors out there in the cosmos, Ambassadors. I suggest you indulge in one or the other, since you do not have the power to affect your fate yourselves.”

“Then why aren’t you out there full time?” Ambassador Pritchard challenged her huffily. “If you can contribute, why don’t you do so?”

“Am I your slave, Ambassador Pritchard?” DiDi asked in a low voice that crackled over the nerves and raised the hairs of every single person in the room.