This is a fan translation of Counterstrike (Ответный удар) by Mikhail Akhmanov, currently only available in Russian and, because of the author's passing in 2019, unlikely to ever be published in English. This is the second book in a six-book series called Arrivals from the Dark (Пришедшие из мрака), which also has a six-book spin-off series called Trevelyan's Mission (Миссия Тревельяна).
I claim no rights to the contents herein.
Prologue
Crew Manifest of the Frigate Commodore Litvin,
USF Third Fleet
Paul Richard Corcoran, Captain
Selina Praagh, Executive Officer
Nikolay Tumanov, First Navigator
Oki Yamaguchi, Second Navigator
Yegor Seriy, First Pilot
Boniface Santini, Pilot
Bai Ling, Pilot
Kirill Pelevich, Senior Weapons Officer
Robert Wentworth, Gunner
Vladimir Pashin, Gunner
Samuel Bigelow, Gunner
Cro Light Water, Gunner
Sancho Hernandez, Senior Engineer
Sigurd Linder, Cybernetic Engineer
Camille Dupressis, Communications Officer
Klaus Siebel, USF Secret Service Officer
Encyclopedia of the Space Wars of the 21st Century,
New York – London – Paris – Moscow.
World Ultranet, 2104, Year 16 Post-Invasion.
Article "Historical Excursion"
The 21st century has entered the military history as an era, when the military opposition between nations, political alliances, and various destructive elements expanded to the extent that it enveloped first the near-Earth space, and then the entire Solar System up to the Asteroid Belt and Jupiter's orbit. This was facilitated by several factors, both technological and those related to ecology and the growth of social unrest on Earth. Usually, historians distinguish four of them:
The creation of new construction materials and a compact fusion drive, making free movement of spacecraft within the Solar System possible.
A keen interest in resources necessary for the development of civilization: deposits of ores, minerals, pure metals, and other raw materials, including fuel, the sources of which could be other planets and the Asteroid Belt.
The demographic problem. While it was clear that none of the planets, including Mars and Venus, was suitable for mass colonization and that Earth's space fleet could not transport hundreds of millions, even billions, settlers to another world; nevertheless, the development of space technology provided certain prospects. In that era, the hopes of potential emigrants still seemed illusive, but many on the overpopulated Earth still believed that humanity would reach the stars and habitable planets, after which expansion into pristine worlds with untouched resources would be possible.
The last and most important factor consisted of political instability, the constant pressure experienced by Russia and the Western nations from China, India, the Arab world, and the other territories with an enormous population but a low standard of living. This pressure was noticeably by continuous terrorist attacks, as well as the activities of anti-globalization dissidents, acting the part of the fifth column in the most developed countries. These nations needed a new instrument of power over the world, a new method of suppressing the acts of terror, rebellions, and local wars, which would be distinguished by mobility and effectiveness. The space battle fleet became that instrument.
The creation of the United Space Forces (USF) in 2054 was the milestone on the path of perfecting this instrument. The USF were answerable only to the UN Security Council [A reminder that, in 2102, the UN was reformed into the World Parliament headed by the First Speaker, and the Security Council became the Solar System Security Committee, presided over by the Second Speaker of the Parliament. As for the USF structure, it largely remained unchanged.] and headed, like today, by a board of three admirals, one each from the USC, the EAU, and the EU [USC is the United States and Canada; EAU is the Eurasian Union, including Russia, Belarus, a number of countries of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Mongolian Governorate; EU is the European Union.]. The first leaders of the Space Forces were the admirals Young (1991-2072), Robin (1996-2068), and Ilyin (2000-2076), who built this powerful organization that continues to exist, without any serious changes, in our time, over sixty years later. They divided their authority, creating three fleets, each including up to twenty powerful cruisers and nearly a hundred ships of smaller classes: frigates and corvettes. The First Fleet was focused on Luna and the near-Earth space, Mars was chosen as the base for the Second Fleet, Mercury and the Asteroid Belt became the bases for the Third. Soon, auxiliary but important structures appeared within the USF: the Marine Corps with rapid response teams and small fighter ships, the Research Corps, and several services (Secret, Information, Asteroid, and Solar). Recently, the Interstellar Space Monitoring Service has been added to them, tasked with watching our star's neighborhood, with the base on Pluto.
However, in 2088, sixteen years ago, when the USF was headed by the admirals Chavez (b. 2040), Haley (b. 2034), and Timokhin (2037-2088), no one seriously considered that the military fleet would be needed to repel an external aggression. The hypothetical "others", "aliens", "extraterrestrials" still remained mere concepts without substance; the common hypothesis was that intelligent life in the galaxy was a unique event and that the possibility of a contact was negligible, and that, if such a contact were to take place, it would happen in a distant future, when space transportation would allow us to reach the stars and settle three or four dozen colonies. Until then, the fleet maintained order on Earth, in the Asteroid Belt, and the near-Solar space, as well as serving as the guarantee of protection against natural threats capable of destroying civilization on Earth: asteroid impacts, comet strikes, and hard radiation attacks due to increased solar activity.
The appearance of the Bino Faata on an enormous starship, carrying nearly fifteen hundred autonomous combat units, was a complete surprise. The first contact, which took place on May 14, 2088, was accidental: the cruiser Lark (see appropriate article), placing navigation beacons beyond Jupiter's orbit, detected a spike of gamma rays, launched four single-seat Vulture-class UFs [UF is a universal fighter, a small multirole combat spacecraft.] and followed them to the epicenter of the explosion. Its cause is still unclear; it is assumed that Faata battle modules attacked and destroyed a scout starship of a race called the Silmarri, of which no reliable information exists. The Faata captured the human cruiser with a directed gravity beam and attempted to pull it to their ship; the captain of the Lark fired swarms [Swarm is a weapon launching a large amount of tiny particles, usually steel needles or beads, that fly at great speeds. In order to avoid clogging up space with metal, space-based weapons use tiny ice crystals.], however, the stream of particles was deflected by the alien starship's defense screen and perforated the cruiser and one of the fighters, hitting three others with glancing blows.
Then the Lark and the fighters were loaded into the Faata starship's hold as samples of Earth weapons. The only survivors were three UF pilots: wing commander Lieutenant Commander Paul Litvin, Lieutenant Abigail McNeil, and Lieutenant Richard Corcoran. The latter died soon after, officially having succumbed to wounds.
The alien starship was only located when it was already approaching Mars's orbit. The messages received from the aliens were friendly in nature; however, a powerful flotilla was sent to intercept them under the command of Admiral Timokhin: admiral frigate Suzdal, heavy cruisers Sakhalin, Pamir, and Lancaster, medium cruisers Sydney, Neva, Fuji, Paraná, Tiburon, Rhine, Viking, and Volga (see the appropriate articles: dates of commission, tactical and technical data). A task was placed before Timokhin by the Security Council: negotiate with the aliens, but keep their enormous starship away from Earth. (Note: At the time, the specifics of the Lark's destruction were not known; it was thought that the cruiser was not establishing contact for an unclear reason.)
The attempt to comply with the Security Council's directive using peaceful methods failed: the Faata wished to land on our planet, promising to give us a number of scientific achievements in exchange for an alliance treaty. However, there were doubts as to their sincerity, and the Security Council, as well as the leaders of the great powers confirmed the orders, which Timokhin was following. On June 3, 2088, the starship made an attempt to head for Earth; Timokhin's flotilla, barring its path, engaged the battle modules launched by the base ship and was obliterated; there were 2026 casualties, the crews of all twelve ships. The recording of this event, about six minutes in length, was sent by the aliens to Earth as evidence of their superiority and might (the infamous Message to the Presidents; see Ultranet).
However, this victorious transmission was premature. During the fight, later dubbed the Battle of the Martian Orbit, Timokhin's flotilla launched a missile volley with the combined firepower of one hundred forty and thousand megaton at the alien ship. According to the official version, the Faata force shield was unable to completely absorb the energy of the explosion, and their starship was damaged. Apparently, the aliens (again, going by the official version) underestimated the severity of the damage or were unable to repair it on the way to Earth. When their gigantic ship descended to the Antarctic, at the South Pole, additional problems appeared in the internal communication and life support systems, which, likely, lead to confusion or even panic among the crew.
It should be noted that the Faata starship, due to its enormous size (6 kilometers in length, 3 kilometers in diameter) was, essentially, a gravity machine. Separate sections of its structure, including the landing mechanisms, were nearly weightless, there were transportation shafts, holds, and other zero-gravity areas, air circulation was also achieved using gravity forces. Thus, artificial gravity was the basis behind the life support system, and the failure of grav generators or any device related to it could have fatal consequences. (Note: This information, received from Lieutenant Commander Litvin, was later confirmed by the examination of the starship's remains).
Prior to the disaster, the aliens managed to send out several dozen battle modules with antimatter throwers, which hovered over the capitals and major cities of our planet. However, the chaos aboard the ship did not allow them to continue the operation, especially since Litvin and McNeil managed to escape their captives, get ahold of a small module, and use its weapon to deal significant harm to several of the ship's systems. Perhaps this ended up being the deciding factor in causing the disaster; a part of the crew was crushed by the falling internal structures, a part fell to death in gravity shafts, the remaining Faata suffocated, when the air supply was interrupted. Simultaneously, the autonomous modules self-destructed, whose explosions turned out to be not as powerful as expected; parts of cities such as London, Brussels, Beijing, Moscow, and Buenos Aires were destroyed within the half-a-kilometers radius from the blast. (Note: The number of casualties in cities was about 43 million.) Litvin and McNeil were not harmed; they managed to escape the dying ship.
Such was the tragic ending to the first encounter between humankind and other, humanoid and technologically developed, lifeforms. Now, after sixteen years, when wounds have been healed, the damage repaired, and the remains of the starship studied in detail, we can make a reasonable conclusion that the Faata did not come to the Solar System on a friendly visit. The scope of this edition is limited to the military and historical themes, so we will not touch upon the various aspects of the aliens' civilization and culture. We will simply note that, in the biological sense, they are similar to the people of Earth (up to the possibility of mutual insemination), but one should not be deceived by this close or near-identical appearance; the psychology of the Bino Faata is different, and their social organization is sharply distinguished from Earth institutions. It is enough to point out that their social hierarchy includes two classes: the fully sentient (strictly speaking, the term "Bino Faata" refers specifically to them) and those of limited sentience (the so-called "t'ho"), who are separated into a number of subclasses or castes: workers, servants, soldiers, guards ("olks"), and the females only tasked with procreation ("ksa"). The Faata civilization, having lived through two global disasters ("Eclipses" using their terminology), is, at the moment, on the rise, and the primary element of their military doctrine is unlimited expansion. This makes the Bino Faata dangerous neighbors, especially since they have colonized several worlds somewhere on the edge of our arm of the galaxy.
The study of the alien ship has significantly accelerated human science, technology, and military development. But this, apparently, is not what is important; the main importance is the notion about the multitude of habitable worlds that we have received. For the galaxy is not at all lifeless, and, among the races populating it, we can find both enemies and friends.
The Annals of the Invasion
2118, Year 30 Post-Invasion
Claude Marais, philosopher, psychologist and sociologist, La Sorbonne.
Article "Lies and Truth about the Invasion",
Later becoming known as "The Marais Hypothesis"
The thirtieth anniversary of the Invasion… A somber date celebrated throughout Earth with the thunder of victorious fanfare, although it would be more appropriate to sing funeral hymns and read psalms for the deceased. Forty-three million people! Forty-three million and two thousand servicemen and women of the Space Fleet, who gave their lives for the freedom of our planet and our star system! Their blood cries out for vengeance…
However, the events of those days have moved away from us, and the heroes may not be forgotten, but are perceived from a historical perspective, almost like the dead veterans of the First and Second World Wars, which took place back in the 20th century. As for the events related to the Invasion, everything seems to be clear, everything has been described in detail, analyzed a hundred times, and all the possible benefits (interstellar drive, grav generators, etc.) have already been extracted.
A big mistake!
I don't mean the appropriation of technological achievements, which opened the way to the stars for us, but the immediate events and facts related to the Battle of the Martian Orbit and the terrible disaster that befell the Bino Faata on Earth. I maintain that there is much vagueness and doubt in what occurred, and several circumstances smell of disinformation from the United Space Forces. Let me remind you that only the specialists of the USF Research Corps were able to study the Faata ship, that the place of its disaster near the South Pole is still a restricted area, and that no independent scientist, much less a journalist, has seen these remains in reality, with his own eyes, not as a holo-projection. To this day, the history of the arrival of the Bino Faata has only one undeniable fact: all the information about them is kept in the secret archives of the USF and is interpreted by the top brass in a way advantageous to them. There are rumors that the basis for these loose interpretations is a certain memorandum, put together by admirals Joseph Haley and Orlando Chavez in 2088, at the conclusion of those events, but, once again, no one has seen the document, and it is absent from the Ultranet. However, despite the lack of data and, I would say, the one-sidedness of the viewpoint, we can put forward certain questions and propose hypotheses explaining them, which is what we will do in this article.
The official version of what happened is split into two streams: external and internal. The external stream is thus: Timokhin's flotilla encounters the aliens near the Martian orbit and, after brief negotiations, engages them in combat. The Faata destroy the flotilla, send the Message to the Presidents, head to Earth, and land into the ice near the South Pole. As a result of the battle with Timokhin's ships, their starship is damaged, and that is all that we can extract from the external stream. As for the internal one, it is significantly more interesting and intriguingly mysterious: twenty days before the battle with the Third Fleet, the aliens have accidentally encountered the cruiser Lark in the vicinity of Jupiter, destroyed it, and took three marine officers prisoner, whose names are known to everyone: Lieutenant Commander Pavel Litvin, Russian, commander of the fighter wing; Lieutenant Abigail McNeil, American, Vulture pilot; Lieutenant Richard Corcoran, Austrian, also Vulture pilot. Corcoran then died under mysterious circumstances, while Litvin and McNeil, either together or separately, escaped from their chamber and spent several days hiding from the Bino Faata crew, wandering the belly of their enormous ship. After its landing, both streams of information, the external and the internal, merge into one: Litvin and McNeil capture a small battle module in one of the hangars, fire its weapon, and the harm caused by them exacerbates the damage already received by the ship. The grav-generators fail, followed by the life support system, and the entire crew dies as a result. But Litvin and McNeil manage to flee on the stolen module! They remain in good health to this day, but refuse to give any interviews; rather, they confirm everything put forward by the official version. Meanwhile… Meanwhile, there are firmly established facts, accounting for which the "internal stream" (i.e. the events inside the ship, from the viewpoint of the two captive officers) becomes more vague.
First of all. It is known that Abigail McNeil did not return to her homeland (the state of Ohio), but moved to the Russian city of Smolensk, to the place of residence of Pavel Litvin and his parents. She had a child with her, a son, and while it is difficult to determine the age of an infant, approximate calculations show that, at the time of her capture, she was six or seven months pregnant. Strange, very strange, since female marine officers are contract-bound to avoid pregnancies! Her condition should have been noticed while she was aboard the Lark, but why did this not happen? Quite inexplicable! The father of the child is listed as the late Richard Corcoran, the boy (now a grown man) bears his name, and in one respect, at least, we need not doubt: he is the son of Abigail McNeil, as he looks very much like her. We have been able to determine that Paul Richard Corcoran serves in the Third Fleet, is married, has two children, and that his family is still in Smolensk.
Second. It could be suspected that the father of the young Paul Richard is, in fact, Litvin, but that is not the case (Corcoran was McNeil's lover, and, besides, any version of paternity fails to explain her rapid pregnancy). After his cosmic escapades, Litvin came to Smolensk with Abigail McNeil, her infant son, and another girl who became his lawful spouse and passed away six years after that. She was a woman of striking and unusual beauty (Litvin claimed she was Chilean or Peruvian) and did not leave any offspring, but she was very attached to McNeil's child. She is buried in Smolensk. By witness accounts, Litvin was inconsolable after her death. However, he found the strength to continue his military career, participated in interstellar expeditions to Baal and Astarte, and now holds the rank of commodore and the post of the chief of staff of the First Fleet.
Third. Any spacecraft is a vehicle with a tenfold margin of safety and durability, which, first and foremost, has to do with the life support system. Of course, this also has to be the case for the Bino Faata starship, which crossed the distance not of several lights years but of dozens of parsecs. How did Litvin cripple it? How did he know which important node should be hit? How did he escape from his cell, and why did they not find him immediately? How did he capture a battle module? And, finally, what aid in all these activities could have been provided by the pregnant McNeil?..
Nonsense! I deliberately pointed out that the "internal stream" is too vague and unsubstantiated. However, in this article, I will propose a hypothesis that will clear away any misunderstanding, answering the questions put forward above.
First, let's talk about McNeil and her child. It is obvious that human methods of reproduction were of interest of the aliens, and McNeil and Corcoran were subjected to a number of experiments. McNeil, most likely, underwent a procedure accelerating the development of the fetus; this could have outraged Corcoran; it is likely that he protested so much that they destroyed him. After that, the pregnant McNeil was not an aide for Litvin but a fellow officer, whom he rescued out of obedience to duty and a sense of friendship.
His true aide was another woman, who gave herself to him, as they say, body and soul, and this is the main link of my hypothesis: the girl he brought to Smolensk and whom he married was a Bino Faata! Likely a person of high rank, who knew much about the ship, its weapons, and vulnerabilities. This explains everything: Litvin's successful escape, the capture of the battle module, the success of his sabotage. He knew what to capture and where to strike! He was advised or, perhaps, even helped.
Naturally, this fact remained a secret. There are many reasons: the honor of the USF uniform, the pride of our race, the mood of the society, polarized by the Invasion into layers, groups, and subgroups; some hate the Bino Faata, others pray to them and believe that we have lost our paradise, and the third group, the so-called Binucks, a hooligan rabble, who believe that they are descended from the aliens, claiming that they had sprayed their seed above the Earth, causing thousands of women to conceive. Rubbish, nonsense! However, in our crazy world, Commodore Litvin's spouse had earned her right to serenity and a quiet peaceful life in the provincial Smolensk. If people knew who she was!.. If they only knew!.. But she died almost a quarter of a century ago, her husband wanders through space, and I decided that it was time to publish my hypothesis.
A hypothesis, a suggestion, nothing more! Perhaps, someday, we will find out the whole truth, if Commodore Litvin, who is not a young man anymore, leaves us his notes and if his memoirs are not classified for the next century. But I will still share with you some of my seditious thoughts that are especially pleasing to me as a Frenchman. What if we owe our salvation not to the might of our cruisers, not to the heroes of the space fleet, not to the bravery of Admiral Timokhin, and not even to Pavel Litvin, but solely to a woman who had sacrificed everything for love? I repeat, this would be pleasing to me. I would have received evidence that love is a much greater force in the galaxy than warships and plasma throwers.
WRITING ON A FENCE NEAR THE OSTANKINO TOWER,
Moscow, 2101, Year 13 Post-Invasion
We will be back to spill your blood. Binucks.
UNITED SPACE FORCES ARCHIVE
Lunar Base.
Summary,
The Haley-Chavez Memorandum, presented to the UN Security Council in September of 2088, Month 3 Post-Invasion
Restricted materials. As was discovered in the process of the armed conflict with the Bino Faata in the current year, and, first and foremost, during the action later dubbed the Battle of the Martian Orbit, the USF proved unable to resist a focused and persistent aggression from space. At that, we see no fault in either our general actions or, in particular, the combat tactics employed by Admiral Timokhin during the battle with the aliens. Its result—a complete destruction of twelve warships, a half of the Third Fleet—would have breen impossible to change by a concentration of greater firepower, more successful maneuvers, or a laser strike instead of the missile launch undertaken by Timokhin. We believe that, in any case, the result would have been the same, since the Faata base starship carried nearly three hundred large and over a thousand small battle modules armed with antimatter emitters, which is an order of magnitude greater than the combined strength of all the divisions of the USF. Even not accounting for the element of surprise, which also did not work in our favor, we would be incapable of defeating such an armada.
Doubtless, the situation will change within the next several years. The study of the Faata ship has already given a powerful boost to all the branches of science and technology and will soon take us to the galactic knowledge level, which means that, in five to ten years, we will no longer be vulnerable to any aggression, no matter the source, be it the Bino Faata or any other denizens of the galaxy. We have already laid down a series of new ships, capable of exploring the nearby stars, we have begun the construction of bases in Pluto's orbit and launched over fifty automated scout probes to the edges of the Solar System; there is no doubt that, in the coming years, we will be able to monitor the near-Solar space up to and including the Oort cloud [The Oort cloud (or, going by the names of the astronomers who studied it, the Öpik–Oort cloud) is an area on the periphery of the Solar System full of fragments planetary substances that, when approaching the Sun, become comets. Located 150,000 Astronomical Units away. An Astronomical Unit (AU) is equal to 149.6 million kilometers, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.].
However, the progress of military technology requires adequate, if not greater, effort in the area of psychology. Let's clarify the situation by listing the main moments of the recent tragedy:
The cruiser Lark was destroyed in the vicinity of Jupiter during the first encounter with the Bino Faata. The only ones left alive were Lieutenant Commander Pavel Litvin and two of his subordinates, Lieutenants Abigail McNeil and Richard Corcoran, kept prisoner aboard the alien ship. Corcoran then died as a result of biological experiments, while McNeil was sedated and artificially inseminated. The goal of this procedure was clear: to cross-breed a Faata and a human in order to produce a hybrid race of servants (possibly warriors). Litvin managed to flee his captivity. With a device he found, the source of which he is unaware, he contacted the quasi-sentient intelligence (a computer?.. a living being?..), performing the functions of control aboard the ship. Most of the information regarding the Bino Faata was received by Litvin from this device (being).
During the second encounter, when Admiral Timokhin attempted to block the aliens' path to Earth, his flotilla was completely destroyed. We would like to emphasize: completely. Three modern cruisers, eight medium cruisers, a frigate, and two thousand crewmembers. There were no survivors. The (presumable) Bino Faata losses were five or six battle modules.
The Faata base starship headed for Earth and, unobstructed, landed in the Antarctic, near the South Pole. (It is assumed that the aliens required a significant amount of water.) Simultaneously with the ice collection, the starship launched several dozen battle modules, which took up positions over major Earth cities.
Litvin, who was hiding in one of the tunnels with a communication line of the quasi-sentient intelligence along with McNeil and a Faata female named Yo, insists that a being materialized in front of him in human form, calling itself Gunther Voss and other names (Liu Chang, Umkhonto Tlume, Roy Bunch, demonstrating the appropriate appearances). Voss introduced himself as an emissary of a starfaring race unknown to humans and offered his services. He teleported in a certain device that destroyed the quasi-mind, after which the starship stopped functioning as a unified system, its crew was killed, and the launched modules exploded, causing destruction in a number of cities. Voss transported Litvin and his two companions to a safe place and disappeared.
The information, received from Litvin, McNeil, and, partially, Yo, the only Bino Faata to survive, was thoroughly analyzed by psychologists, as well as the specialists who were studying and continue to study the remains of the extraterrestrial ship. There are no doubts as to its authenticity. Besides that, we do not know of any other reason capable of causing a disaster of such a scale aboard the interstellar ship which has crossed the path from the edge of the galactic spiral.
The above can be interpreted by the politicians, mass media, and portions of the population as a failure of the USF defense efforts and our helplessness before the face of cosmic aggression. In essence, that is true, but it is necessary to actively fight such attitudes, for their negative consequences seem obvious. To this end, the identity of the Faata female Yo, the identity of the emissary Voss, and the role he played in these events must be kept fully classified, and the facts described above need to be given a new interpretation. Here is a possible cover story.
While Admiral Timokhin and his crews were unable to protect Earth from invasion, they did their duty and died a heroic death. During the Battle of the Martian Orbit, they inflicted serious damage to the alien starship, as a result of which the Faata landed in the unpopulated Antarctic, not willing to risk selecting a more convenient landing site, like the vicinity of Moscow, New York, Paris, or another large city. Lieutenant Commander Litvin, on the ship at the time, managed to take advantage of the situation, captured and activated one of the small battle modules, allowing him to destroy the alien starship's life support system. He was able to escape (along with McNeil, of course) aboard the module when the disaster struck.
The abovementioned version of events explains the main facts and, after adding a number of details, needs to be introduced into the public consciousness using all means of propaganda. Either way, the Space Fleet has done its job! This thought must become a panacea to the feelings of doom, panic, rampant chaos and anarchy, which could grip the planet in the near future. We also believe that the names of the fallen heroes (first and foremost, Admiral Timokhin) should be immortalized using all traditional methods, both artistic (books, films, statues, etc.) and informational (Ultranet sites, memorial associations and foundations, establishment of special prizes and awards), the necessary funds for which will be allocated by the USF. As for Lieutenant Commander Litvin, he is to be given the Crown of Glory, First Class, and, after a period of rest, will be promoted to resume his service on a ship of the Third Fleet.
Special note. Lieutenant McNeil (nine months pregnant) is currently checked into the hospital at the USF Lunar Base. Ultrasound has shown that she is expecting a boy, officially the son of the late Richard Corcoran, with whom McNeil was in a relationship. According to the mother's wishes, he is to be named Paul Richard (in honor of Pavel Litvin and his alleged father). Subsequently, if the child turns out to be viable, he will remain under the observation of the USF Secret Service. The same will be done with Abigail McNeil and Yo, the Faata female.
Signed,
CINC First Fleet, Admiral Orlando Chavez.
CINC Second Fleet, Admiral Joseph Haley.
SOLAR SYSTEM SECURITY COMMITTEE
USF SECRET SERVICE
File #112/56-AD,
Subject Gunther Voss.
2121, Year 33 Post-Invasion
Top Secret.
NAME (ALIAS USED BY THE SUBJECT): Gunther Voss. Other aliases: Liu Chang, Umkhonto Tlume, Roy Bunch.
DATE OF BIRTH: Not established. Assumed age: several hundred years.
PLACE OF BIRTH: Not established. Assumed to be one of the planets of the galaxy populated by a non-humanoid race.
PARENTS: Blank.
CLOSE RELATIVES: Blank.
PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Not established. In 2088, prior to the Invasion, resided in several locations (Brussels, Singapore, and others) in accordance with his aliases and appearances.
FALSE STATUS: Took up various positions in human society. Four of them are known and have been studied in detail:
Gunther Voss, reporter and "digger" (specialist for locating sensational news) for the weekly magazine CosmoSpiegel. Caucasian male; see sketch and other information in Appendix A;
Liu Chang, astronomer, undergoing fellowship at the orbital Kepler Laboratory and the first detect the flash near Jupiter (the result of a battle between the Faata and a Silmarri ship). Chinese male; see sketch and other information in Appendix A;
Umkhonto Tlume, diplomat, temporary representative of the Free Zulu Territory in the UN Security Council. African male; see sketch and other information in Appendix A;
Roy Bunch, staff communications officer at the USF ground base in Singapore. Caucasian male; see sketch and other information in Appendix A;
REAL STATUS: An emissary of an unknown highly-developed race (provisional name: Metamorphs or Proteids [From the name of the Ancient Greek god Proteus, son of Poseidon, capable of changing his appearance.]), capable of radically altering his appearance and, likely, metabolism and physiology. The reasons for the Proteids' hostility towards the Bino Faata have not yet been established, but there is no reason to doubt the fact. During the time of the Invasion, their emissary engaged in multiple activities: Liu Chang proposed the hypothesis regarding the appearance of a hostile extraterrestrial ship in the Solar System; Gunther Voss voiced a series of sensational materials on this topic; Umkhonto Tlume insistently informed the UN Security Council of the Invasion; Roy Bunch undertook the appropriate propaganda among the USF ranks. The goal of all these activities (and, possibly, others as yet undetermined) was to cause Earth's military forces to actively oppose and, in the end, destroy the Bino Faata. But this action was, effectively, carried out by the Metamorph emissary himself. When the aliens had landed, he delivered and given to Lieutenant Commander Litvin a container with micro-robots, a biomechanical analogue to insects, which engaged in disassembly of the tissues of the quasi-sentient device controlling the ship. Its destruction led to the deaths of the entire Faata crew.
PHYSIOLOGICAL INDICATORS: Unknown. Capable of altering his facial features, height, weight, skin color within the limits of human appearance. Capable of teleporting objects up to one hundred kilograms within the boundary of Earth and up to several grams to interplanetary distances (as evidenced by Lieutenant Commander Litvin).
PSYCHOLOGICAL INDICATORS: All the persons who interacted with Voss, Liu Chang, Tlume, and Bunch note that the emissary was absolutely believably imitating human behavior and emotions; none of the interviewees doubted that they were speaking to a human. However, this tolerance, as well as the aid in combatting the Faata, do not mean that the Proteid emissary and all of his people are friendly towards humanity. A careful forecast can be made that they are, at the very least, not hostile to us. Nothing is known about the other psychological indicators or driving motives.
SPECIAL NOTE: After the destruction of the Faata, Voss disappeared. It can be assumed that he, taking on another appearance, is still located on Earth. His former contacts are being thoroughly traced.
SOLAR SYSTEM SECURITY COMMITTEE
USF SECRET SERVICE
File #112/56-AF,
Subject Paul Richard Corcoran.
2123, Year 35 Post-Invasion
Top Secret.
NAME: Paul Richard Corcoran.
DATE OF BIRTH: September 22, 2088.
PLACE OF BIRTH: USF Lunar Base hospital.
PARENTS: Abigail McNeil (see file #122/56-AB), Richard Corcoran (deceased; see file #122/56-AC).
Note: As determined by genetic experts in 2088, immediately after birth, and again in 2099, Paul Richard Corcoran is not the son of Richard Corcoran. Several features of the chromosome set provide irrefutable evidence that he is the patrilineal descendant of a Bino Faata (see file #122/56-AB, section "Experiments conducted on Lieutenant McNeil on the alien ship").
CLOSE RELATIVES: Mother – Abigail McNeil; wife – Vera Corcoran (née Kovaleva, marriage registered in 2114); daughters – Nadezhda (b. 2116) and Lyubov (b. 2117).
PLACE OF RESIDENCE: EAU, Russia, Smolensk, Holmy neighborhood, house 94 (private residence).
STATUS: USF officer at the rank of commander, first officer aboard the cruiser Europe, Third Fleet.
Service record:
2105-2111: cadet at the Baikonur Space Academy. Graduated cum laude. Upon completion, awarded the rank of junior lieutenant.
2111-2113: pilot of Vulture-class UF, attached to the cruiser Taiga, Third Fleet. Awarded the rank of lieutenant in 2112.
2113-2114: USF Graduate Navigator School, Málaga. Upon completion, awarded the rank of lieutenant commander.
2114-2117: second navigator, the cruiser Genghis Khan, Third Fleet.
2117: USF special courses, Lunar Base. Specializations: Human Resources, Strategy and Tactics of Space Warfare, Utilization of Military Robots.
2118-2120: third officer, the cruiser Europe, Third Fleet.
2120-2122: second officer, the cruiser Europe, Third Fleet. Awarded the rank of commander in 2122.
2122-present: first officer, the cruiser Europe, Third Fleet.
Participation in combat operations: see Appendix A.
List of awards and distinctions: see Appendix B.
MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INDICATORS: Absolutely healthy, stable psyche. Decisive, brave, proactive. Somewhat closed-in. Recommended to be placed on USF command reserve. For detailed characteristics and test results, see Appendix C.
SPECIAL NOTE: Knows the secret of his origins. Possesses a paranormal gift (capability to engage in a mental contact), which he, obviously, inherited from his Faata ancestor. Corcoran's children have not yet exhibited such talents.
The Washington Post
September 24, 2120,
Year 32 Post-Invasion.
Review of the blockbuster movie Invasion
Produced by Star Light (Hollywood), Roskino (Moscow).
Producer: C. Vanderbilt; director: A. Mikhalkov
Starring: Chuck Norris, Jr., Alex Glukhov, Jacqueline Mao, Vanessa Straub, Peter Van Damme, Olaf Lindgren.
In the thirty-two years since the Invasion, the tragedy of the first interstellar conflict has served as the source material for many hundreds of documentary and feature holofilms, not to mention thousands of books, articles in the press and the Ultranet and multiple investigations conducted by scientists, politicians, and journalists. However, great events can only be adequately reflected by great people, whose talent and spiritual strength are comparable to the scale of the cataclysm. Which is what happened in this case, as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Arman Mikhalkov are, without a doubt, the greatest figures in cinema since Charlie Chaplin.
It is always difficult to review a brilliant production, as, for one, the supply of praise is limited, two, all the appropriate words are as jaded as an ancient computer disk, and third, one must find and point out some flaws, as it is the duty of a reviewer with a firm belief that there is no ointment without a fly. But, as the saying goes, the broken road is the most trusted, and we, following it, will put away the talk about the flaws and first speak of the merits.
The main of them, without a doubt, is the historical accuracy, as confirmed by the USF personnel involved in those events and professional historians. Along with that, the director gave free reign to his creative imagination, combining the official version with the so-called "Marais Hypothesis", published by the eponymous French scholar in the Annals of the Invasion in 2118. Even if this story of the love of a man from Earth and an alien woman is fictional, it is, most definitely, one that adorns the work of a great master, uniting the cosmic tragedy of the worlds with the tragedy of human emotion.
The rest is quite authentic. The interior of the alien Ship, through which Litvin (Chuck Norris, Jr.) is wondering, were reproduced in great detail, as were the moments of the Battle of the Martian Orbit, the destruction of the cruiser Lark, and the disaster awaiting the alien starship in the Antarctic ice. But, perhaps, the most impressive and emotionally tense are not the battle scenes, not the lyrical scenes between Litvin and Yo (Jacqueline Mao), but the images of the landing Ship, when the gigantic cylinder six kilometers in height and three in diameter falls upon the Southern continent. This also fits with the historical truth: as is known, during the battle with the flotilla commanded by Admiral Timokhin (Olaf Lindgren), the Ship sustained heavy damage, aggravated by the impact on the surface of the glacier. That is what allowed Commander Litvin to capture a battle module during the panic and destroy the air supply controls and other vital devices.
Oh, that picture, when the artificial asteroid, splashing away herds of clouds and creating vortices, is plummeting to the icy landmass! When it descends to the rocky surface under the eternal glacier, when monstrous fountains of steam rush up into the air, falling back down as rain, when the wind is cracking the fields of ice, smashing ice mountains into the sea, sending waves into all directions, to Tierra del Fuego and the Cape of Good Hope, to Tasmania and New Zealand! A truly apocalyptic sight! But, like all the other computer reconstructions based on historical materials supplied by the USF, Arman Mikhalkov made use of the infamous Message to the Presidents, a recording sent by the Bino Faata to the Presidents of Russia, USC, and other nations after destroying Timokhin's flotilla as a symbol of their victory. We now know that it was a Pyrrhic victory; the alien starship was damaged by the massive missile volley launched by our ships.
As for the cast ensemble, only one thing could be said – it was put together brilliantly. Besides the already-mentioned Chuck Norris, Jr., Olaf Lindgren, and Jacqueline Mao, it includes such A-list stars as Alex Glukhov, soulfully performing the small but tragic role of Lieutenant Corcoran, Vanessa Straub (his sweetheart Abby McNeil), and Peter Van Damme, who had the most difficult task of portraying an alien. Van Damme is quite convincing as the leader of the Bino Faata, the merciless Pillar of Order Yata. As stated by informed sources, he did not even have to put on makeup; he is slim, graceful, dark-haired, and his facial features are reminiscent of the Faata: a high forehead, wide cheekbones, and a narrow but strong chin. Van Damme could have perhaps become the star of the season in the role of the alien leader, had he not been eclipsed by the lovely Jacqueline Mao, playing Yo, the charming alien girl, who survived the disaster and, according to the Marais Hypothesis, became Commander Litvin's wife. This acting duo, we mean Jacqueline and Chuck, portrays the sudden passion so sincerely, so frankly, so…
(This is followed by twelve more praising paragraphs. As for the flaws, the reviewer sees them in the excessive realism of several especially violent scenes: specifically, the scene of Admiral Timokhin's death, incinerated on the bridge of the frigate Suzdal, and the images of the deaths of the aliens, trapped in their ship with a failing life support system. Finally, the reviewer engages in a fierce debate with a number of journalists, some of whom believe that the Marais Hypothesis is nonsense unworthy of being mentioned, and others claim that the blockbuster Invasion was financed by the USF and primarily promotes the official version of the events, which is fairly controversial.)
WRITING ON A FENCE NEAR THE JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NEW YORK,
2120, Year 32 Post-Invasion
We are back. Tremble, ye cursed t'ho! Binucks.
UNITED SPACE FORCES
Mercury 1 base
Order of the Third Space Fleet, on March 7, 2125, Year 37 Post-Invasion
By this order, Commander Paul Richard Corcoran is relieved from the post of first officer aboard the cruiser Europe and is given command of the frigate Commodore Litvin with the promotion to the rank of captain.
The frigate Commodore Litvin is to be attached to Special Task Force 37.
Signed: CINC Third Fleet, Admiral Konstantin Yumashev.