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team tell you it
would cost?” Gray wasn’t about to just lay on the floor and take a pummeling.
He may not have earned a living in combat, but he knew what weapons he could
use in a situation like this.
    The president looked at Kelly and he could
see the hesitation. Parnell was a politician, and like the rest of his kind, he
could smell blood in the water.  “Tom, how much are we looking at,
including the cost of getting these airships up and running?”
    Admiral Kelly had been staring at Gray,
knowing the moment had been forced too soon. He turned to Parnell and looked
him straight in the eye. “Mr. President, the total budget will be thirty-four
Trillion, including assembly.” He remained stock still, looking at the man with
the purse strings.
    Parnell stared back at him in a silent
room. Did I hear that right? “Tom, did you just ask me to spend one and
a half times our current national debt?”
    Sam, oddly enough the only economist on
Parnell’s staff, spoke into the silence. “Sir, even if we nationalize the
contractors and suppliers to enforce cost controls, this would completely
bankrupt us. No bank on Earth would touch us with a ten foot pole. Our economy
would tank within a year; massive unemployment, rampant crime, riots.” He shook
his head. “We might save the planet from aliens, but we would end up a failed
state. It would turn America into a massive prison with Tom here as the
warden.”
    Silence fell again on a sobered room.
    Charles Gray broke the silence. “We’re
talking about this as if the aliens would only be interested in attacking the
United States.” He looked around the room. “We have a whole planet full of
countries to work with. We didn’t send up the ISS missions on our own; we
spread the work and costs between ourselves, the Russians, the Japanese, the
Canadians and the Europeans.”
    Parnell felt a surge of hope as Gray spoke. He has the right idea, his scale is just off. “Charles is right, Sam. We
just need to expand on it. Dividing the cost five ways still won’t work; it’s
not enough.”
    “We need China,” Kelly said flatly.
    “We need everybody,” Sam insisted.
    Parnell sighed. “Everybody. Suddenly I’m
not so sure I like where this is heading.” He turned his head to look at Sam,
sitting to his right. “If we go down that road, we may not be able to come
back. Don’t they still claim we owe them money?”
    “They can go suck eggs!” Kelly’s sudden outburst
had every eye in the room on him. “What are they talking about, a couple
Billion? We’ve given them ten times that in military support but they
conveniently forget that when they come calling with their hat in hand.” He
pointed a finger at Sam. "If we give them more money, they're just going
to waste it on magic beans, and you sure as hell can't put a military force in
their hands. We need this force under NATO command."
    “And what are you going to tell the
Chinese?" Sam raised an eyebrow. "I'm no fan of giving money to the
UN either, but imagine what would happen if we went to the Chinese and asked
them nicely to give several Trillion dollars to NATO." He kept his
trademark deadpan expression as he continued. "They'd probably wonder if
we should be kept under observation for a few days, just to be sure we're not a
danger to ourselves or others."
    Parnell nodded. “You won’t find me
disagreeing, Tom, but Sam is right: this has to happen, and we can't coordinate
this through NATO. We need an organization that everybody belongs to and there
just isn’t time to build one from scratch. We need to use what tools already
exist. NATO will have to 'encourage' the western financial contributors, and
China will do the same in the east.” He looked back to Sam. “Get me a meeting.”
     

Conception
    Turtle Bay
    Manhattan, New York
    January 6 th , 2026
    J ess Sisulu came out from behind her desk. No matter what
direction this meeting takes, let it not be said that I didn’t start it on a
friendly