Information: New incoming force of UFOs dividing. First group is continuing to advance on Moonbase, ETA three minutes. Second group is...
There wasn't a single SHADO operative who didn't gape at the intercom speakers as, for the first time in its entire existence, SID hesitated. It was only a moment, but SID had actually paused. It was as if, the AI's programmers later said (when Gay finally kept her promise to herself to have words with them), SID was shocked at its own findings.
It continued: ...engaging first group! Repeat: second UFO group is engaging first group!
He did it! Kelly silently exulted, hardly able to believe it. He DID it!
The radio channels erupted into a frenzy of messages from Interceptor pilots and tank crews as they, too, confirmed what was happening, unbelievable though it was.
There was, it seemed, still hope. SHADO wasn't beaten yet.
"Holy shit, it's true!" Harmony screamed incredulously. "What the -?"
"Alpha Flight, GET OUT OF THERE!" Kelly roared as he recovered his mental equilibrium. "Don't get caught in the crossfire! Gay -"
"Control to Alpha Flight: new course Zero-Two-Zero, One-Zero-Three, Green, maximum speed!" Gay ordered instantly, having anticipated him; she'd calculated an escape trajectory on the fly.
(Kelly later asked, baffled: "How the hell did you do that?!" and was not a little worried at her reply:
"I guessed.")
"Disengage! Repeat, disengage! And clear the command channels, all of you!"
"Alpha Flight, roger! Punch it, girls! Jesus, you should see this!"
It was indeed spectacular, and very, very difficult to explain away to terrestrial observers. The UFOs were firing savagely on each other, letting loose multiple energy bolts, something no-one in SHADO had ever seen before. One in particular seemed to be their equivalent of an Ace; he was performing manoeuvres at what Harmony later cheerfully called 'Ludicrous Speed', in this case SOL 8.4 and above. Every shot he fired scored a hit, and every hit he made was on a UFO - though he did singe Sabrina's main drive slightly as she made a desperate escape. Not that she held a grudge; she was out of missiles and his target was right on her tail until it suddenly exploded.
Thanks, whoever you are, she thought, relieved. She requested and received permission to rendezvous with SID, where she could rearm in flight; landing at Moonbase would've taken too long. Alpha-Three accompanied her, providing cover. So, to her surprise, did a UFO. Since when do UFOs give cover to Interceptors?! Just what the hell is going on?!
And then, somehow, she knew what was going on.
So did every SHADO operative involved in the battle.
She knew which UFOs were on their side, and which weren't. She knew, for example, that the two approaching her port flank were unfriendly...and that her escort would deal with them. It did; two amazingly precise shots took them out.
It never occurred to anyone until later to question this knowledge, or its source. They simply accepted it.
Post-combat analysis showed it was as well they did; without the support of the moderate faction, the military junta would have overwhelmed and utterly destroyed Moonbase. A full-scale, unstoppable invasion would surely have followed.
"The moderates helped me," Nyquist explained exhaustedly, his face grey and running with sweat. He was drained from the terrific mental effort he'd made, and shaking all over. His nose was still bleeding; he'd made no attempt yet to staunch it. "They temporarily boosted my abilities even further and...and made it possible for me to...distinguish friend from foe, as well as enabling me to...implant this knowledge in the minds of our...combatants," he gasped.
"Good job, Andrew," Kelly praised him, "though I've no idea how I'm going to explain it to Henderson."
It was a feeble joke at best, and inappropriate in the circumstances, but Nyquist laughed shakily anyway.
Nearly an hour elapsed before the tide definitively turned, but the outcome was inevitable. Slowly SHADO and the moderates gained the upper hand, though none of the military faction chose to surrender. Perhaps appropriately, it was Harmony who made the last kill of the day with a long-range missile shot, taking out a single UFO which tried to escape - doubtless the military faction's command craft.
What few moderate-faction UFOs remained gathered into a tight group in high orbit above Moonbase, per Nyquist's request...surrounded by Interceptors. They'd agreed to hold their position until the Commander gave them clearance to leave, once he and Andrew were sure no military-faction craft were hiding among them.
The Skydivers had by now eliminated all the UFOs which had made it into Earth's atmosphere, backed up by the Mobiles deployed around SHADO HQ - they hadn't gotten through in sufficient numbers to make a serious play, thanks to Moonbase, SID and the Interceptors. Cover stories would later be released to the world's press...none of which were terribly convincing. But the UN Security Council insisted that the truth still not be told.
And it wasn't.
The world was saved...and never knew it.
Moonbase, Medical Bay (Isolation)
The next morning
A battery of the world's most advanced medical diagnostic equipment surrounded the Alien envoy, lying supine on a bed. The equipment, when it was eventually declassified and released into the public domain, would likely save millions of human lives every year.
But right now, it was useless. Every reading indicated the same story: the Alien was losing the fight for life. In fact, he wasn't fighting.
"Can't you do anything, Doctor?" Kelly appealed to Jackson.
"He cannot mend a broken heart, Commander," Andrew murmured unhappily. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. "The Aliens do have a few women...not many. However, they mate for life, a bond of both body and mind...and his life mate was the envoy UFO's pilot," he explained sadly. "He felt her die, as did I...and he will soon join her. There is nothing we can do. There would be nothing even they could do." A tear rolled down his cheek.
"No, we can't let him die! We need him alive," Kelly insisted earnestly. He was surprised at the strength of his feeling in this regard, but he was genuinely saddened at the prospect of the envoy's death, the chance for learning more about the Aliens notwithstanding. "There's so much he could tell us! Not just about their tech, but their history, their culture! For the first time, we've got our hands on an Alien who doesn't want to fight! There's so much we can learn -"
"It is their way, Commander, as it has been for thousands of years. Let him go, I beg you. For the sake of what we are, for the sake of everything we are fighting for...let us show compassion and even, dare I say it, humanity! Please, Commander," Andrew entreated. "Please! He wants to die! He is so terribly, unbearably alone in his mind...but I can ensure at least he will not die alone." Andrew's gaze was filled with pleading.
Is this what it's about? Kelly wondered. One of them saved Paul Foster's life once...another risked and lost his life trying to surrender to us...now this one is begging us to let him die? Should I? There's so much to learn...but at what cost? This is a question of priorities: is our humanity more important than our victory?
If he were human, would I let him go...?
But he of all people knew what wanting to die felt like. He had, once, as he watched his beloved Katniss suffering, dying, as the Alien bullet crushed her heart...and his own.
He made his decision. As Ed Straker had before him, he based all of his most critical decisions on a variety of factors: strategic, computational, but above all...human. It was that last point which settled it.
In war, to behave like the enemy is to become the enemy. He remembered Ed saying something to that effect.
And so, in the end, he did the human thing. He would no more force an Alien to live when he didn't want to than he would a human being; it would be just as wrong. If they surrendered their human principles, they might just as well surrender the Earth. "Clear the room, people - everyone but Mr. Nyquist."
"Commander," Jackson interjected, "there is a procedure I could try -"
"No," Kelly said quietly. "We've lost this one. Tell him...tell him I'm sorry, Andrew."
"Actually, Commander, he requests you remain," Andrew told him, to his surprise. "I will articulate his thoughts."
What followed was recorded only in Kelly's journal, maximally encrypted using the most advanced fractal quantum algorithm yet devised; it would, SHADO's cryptographers estimated, take at least a billion years, using the entire world's computing power, to decrypt even the first letter of the text...and even the Aliens would likely need at least ten million years.
It was stored by Kelly himself in SID's capacious state-of-the-art SSD memory, though SID itself had no record whatsoever of him doing so, thanks to his judicious editing of its memories. The entire operation remained secret, as did the journal's periodic updates; SID was now programmed to forget that he'd sent such transmissions to it every time he did so. "What's the best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself," was his father's advice to him as a boy. He'd followed it ever since.
As had Ed Straker, of course.
"I am sorry, my friend," Andrew murmured, "as are we all. We believed in this mission."
"As did we," Andrew spoke now in a peculiar echoing voice. Kelly knew instantly the Alien was speaking rather than Andrew, as the moderates had spoken through Croxley all those years ago. "The military fear the future. Even in the face of our ultimate crisis, even as we struggle for our very existence, they fear their obsolescence."
"That is true on our world, too," Andrew remarked wryly. "But one day, we will learn a better way."
"Surely we will, yes; one day. Commander," the Alien/Andrew addressed him, "the fault was not yours. It was we who underestimated our military, particularly their new, highly capable leader."
"They hacked into your transmissions to Andrew," Kelly surmised, "as you did theirs to Croxley." He was facing and addressing the Alien, rather than Andrew; he felt it was only courteous, like speaking directly to a deaf person rather than her interpreter. He knew somehow the envoy understood and appreciated the gesture.
"Correct. They discovered our plan. But they did not act alone - they had help. There is a spy, but we learned of him too late; we were already committed to this effort."
"A spy - in SHADO?" Kelly tensed. The Alien and Andrew both nodded. "Well, we'll deal with him. Who is it?"
"We do not know. But I can find out," Andrew offered, his voice changing in mid-stride. It was easy to intuit his meaning: he would use his telepathic skills to uncover the traitor, who would never see it coming as there'd be no official investigation. Kelly nodded.
"I must go...she waits..."
"Can you not stay a little longer?" Andrew asked him quietly.
"It is our way, my friend, as contra-survival as it sounds. We tried to change this once, but we discovered that our basic nature can no more change than human nature can. In truth, I...want to go."
"So be it," Andrew murmured sadly, in reluctant acceptance."Go, then, with our blessing."
"I thank you, Andrew. Commander: one more thing?"
"Yes?"
"Do not despair," the Alien told him softly. "We tried our best, and failed. But others will succeed. They must. Peace is the way...for both our peoples. One day, they will understand..."
"I hope so," Kelly replied quietly. "Thank you for trying. Safe journey," he finished, almost...gently.
With no further ado, the Alien's eyes fluttered closed. All the life-readings dropped to zero, and the monitors faded into silence.
He was gone.
Andrew bowed his head and wept as if he had lost a brother. Kelly placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
They remained like that for over an hour, standing vigil like warriors in the days of old.
Alien or not, he deserved that much.