Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [78]
She grimaced back at him.
Greyhaven nodded to her. 'I think you are right. I'll check with Xznaal, and try to set up a meeting between the two of you. A documentary about their history will help people to understand the Martians better.'
Eve tried to stay calm as she was handed another world exclusive.
***
By nine o'clock, the breakfast television and radio programmes were drawing to a close. The news editors had been careful not to do anything that might lead to accusations that they had instilled panic in the population. They concentrated on the awe-inspiring prospect of a peaceful alliance with a hitherto unknown race. Reports about the political situation were downplayed in favour of more offbeat coverage: UFO cranks, science fiction writers and comedians got a great deal more airtime than constitutional lawyers, politicians or police chiefs. In the national interest, no-one asked where the Queen had got to - only she had the power to dissolve Parliament and to confirm the appointment of a Prime Minister.
***
EMAIL MESSAGE
From: Power Commission Ltd, London
To: PCL, Washington
Subject: Business Development, United Kingdom
Date: 8/5/97:10.15 BST
Greetings Abe,
It's been a busy day here, but things have calmed down now. As you know, the server went down about eight, approximately the time the UFO turned up! The engineers were here already, and they knew all about the fault, because they were in touch with the manufacturers.
About nine PCL employees were down in Trafalgar Square, the rest of us were out of town. There were a lot of tourists there, and they watched two politicians going aboard for a pow-wow. There was a carnival atmosphere in the Square. Our business partners are in the dark about long-term prospects - some of them are optimistic. PCL will maintain its operation here.
Regards to the kids,
John.
***
Eleven o'clock British Summer Time is 6 am in Washington.
Pentagon officials had been trying to determine the situation in the United Kingdom all day. International phone calls to Britain were proving erratic, although they had other means of contacting their embassy.
Every intelligence analyst that could be spared was being flown to Langley.
72
A host of agencies from the IMF to Omega Sector were put on stand-by. UNIT ONE, the Creative Intelligence division of the American branch of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce was co-ordinating the groups, while UNIT THREE was liasing with NASA and the White House on the feasibility of a counterstrike on Mars itself.
CIA analysts were treating the situation as an invasion, and the Provisional Government as a puppet organisation.
It happened in third world countries al the time - some faction would receive funding from another power and topple the incumbent president, tyrant or whatever. The foreign power always had a purpose for doing that -
strategic, economic or political reasons.
The military capability of the Martians was unknown. Their ship had arrived without registering on radar, but there was no evidence from the spy satellites that there was more than one ship over the UK, and there wasn't a mothership in orbit, as far as anyone could tel . The ship was a kilometre long, so there could be thousands of Martian troops onboard. It was armed with energy weapons and armour plating, but the ship hadn't demonstrated what analysts called 'Clarke Level' abilities: technology so advanced that it defied current scientific knowledge.
The PCL email was the first news from UNIT.
Oswald held up the printout of the PCL message.
'I can't believe you managed to intercept this. Doug, I think you may just have become the first person to hack into UNIT.'
Doug raised his finger to his lips, looking around the Cafe. The place was busier than ever following the Invasion -
with most phone lines down, email was the only way to send an international message. And you could only do that with some highly il egal hacking into the BT system.