What (Not) To Do In The Event Of An Invasion
Written For: FLAME University Upskill Workshop on “Everything you know about storytelling is wrong” taken by Assistant Professor- Academic Writing, Michael Burns.
Dee really wasn’t paid enough for this. Honestly, she
wasn’t even entirely sure what she was doing here in the President’s Situation
Room during what seemed to be A Catastrophe of Epic Proportions if the
red-faced Generals and intelligence agents were to be believed. Wait, did she
even have the security clearance to be here when-
“In case you were too slow to catch it the last five
times, General Fa, the intelligence is infallible.”
“That’s what you said last time Director and-”
“We’ve already implemented measures after that, how
long can you possibly hold a grudge?”
“You weren’t the one with the combusted eyebrows,
Markus.”
“Gentlemen, I know you didn’t call us all here at
three in the night to brief the President on your holiday feud?” interrupted
the National Security Advisor, a stony-faced woman who had been part of
Situation Room meetings before the military commanders had gotten their first
assignments.
“Of course, Marge. And really, I assure you-”
“Marge, when have I ever wasted the President’s time?”
Her stark red finger-nails drummed against the table.
“Right, well, I’ll just get to it then.” Said Director
of Intelligence, Markus. “To be succinct: we’re being invaded.”
“What?” Spluttered the President as he stood up and
slammed his palms against the table, dislodging several of the papers in front
of him. Dee put down her files and scrambled to pick them up, bumping against
the three other assistants in the room. The President didn’t spare them a
glance as he continued in that croaky voice of his, “But no other colony should
have the resources after-”
“Yes, Mr. President. The bombings were successful but
this threat is actually, and I never thought that I’d say this really, I’ve
always considered myself a man of science but there really is no way other to
say it but-”
“The point, Markus.”
“Its extra-terrestrials.”
The room fell silent. Dee bumped her head against the top
of the desk.
When her Government and Public Policy lecturer had
recommended she apply to the Presidential Internship Program for university
students, she hadn’t imagined she’d get the job. Now here she was, unpaid and
so sleep-deprived she could have sworn the Director said something crazy like
they were being attacked by-
“Aliens?” blinked the President, unusually
pale. And there went the hope of it being an exhaustion induced fever dream.
As the room broke out into pandemonium- the generals
shouting and waving their laser pointers at a bunch of satellite images and
someone played a staticky radio transmission- Dee wondered, a bit hysterically,
how she had gotten here.
Her grandmother had been right. She should’ve quit
this job the moment they said they couldn’t pay her in cash because of budget
cuts but she’d be gaining something much more valuable in experience. She
should’ve walked out the door the second Mrs Laughton slipped in the parking
lot and promoted her to Temporary Secretary to the President while she was in
the hospital. She really ought to have slapped her resignation letter onto
Jarvis in Admin’s desk the first time she heard what behind-the-door
discussions in politics really meant.
“I don’t see why we need to tell the public.”
Announced the President, crossing his arms across his chest and breaking Dee
out of her spiral.
“Mr. President, I really must impress upon you the
very short time-span we have for evacuation if we want to get everyone out of-”
began Markus.
“It’ll just cause mass panic. You know the people.
They tend to over react and be stupid.”
“Regardless of their reaction, Mr. President
tactically, it is the best option. There is a massive population and area the
forces would have to cover and cooperation by-” followed up General Fa.
“Listen, I don’t think you understand that I have an
election coming up and if we start fighting a space war while fighting
inflation, it won’t do wonders for my poll numbers.”
“You have a duty to the people who elected you to
office, not your chances of re-election.” Said Marge.
“I have a duty to doing what I think is best and what
I think is best as President is not disclosing this to the media. Can’t we just
shoot them out of the sky? Don’t we have a laser for that?”
“Mr. President-”
“For the love of-”
“I really cannot condone-”
“Jeanie”, Dee scrambled to pull out her notepad, the
President wasn’t very good with names but he pointed at her and said, “schedule
a Press Conference right now. We need to distract from this, I’ll talk to them
about my wife’s restorations in the north library.”
The President walked out of the Situation Room with
his advisors trailing behind him and Dee frantically calling the Press
Secretary. Distractedly she was surprised to find herself unmoved by the
realization that there was an impending alien invasion and their elected
representative wasn’t doing anything or telling any one about it. Some weeks ago,
she would have been outraged and she wondered, tuned out as the Press Secretary
cursed about the short notice, if this was the valuable experience Jarvis had
meant in his pitch, learning how not to care and how to remove any remaining
rosy tint from your vision.
By the time the loud and still-arguing party stopped
in front of the Press Room, Dee had pretty much resigned herself to being
forced to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. There wasn’t anything she could do
anyway as a lowly intern with less power than the President’s dog who was
notorious for getting anything he wanted with a bat of his chocolate eyes. The
Press Secretary greeted the President with her usual camera-ready smile and tightly
coiffed hair, letting him know that the press pool was seated. As the Press
Secretary pushed open the wooden doors for them to enter, there weren’t any
flashing cameras like Dee had been expecting. Instead, they were greeted by an
odd dozen sleep-rumpled journalists. One was still dressed in his pajamas and
another had arrived with her pillow.
The President stepped up to the podium, grabbing the
brief from Marge’s hands. She scowled disapprovingly at him but when she turned
to face the press, her face was unreadable. Next to her, Markus was patting a
visibly disgruntled General Fa on his back. The rest of the Generals and
advisors had either made themselves scarce or were looking at the old patterned
carpet like it held the secret to the aliens’ invasion plans.
“How’s everyone doing?” began the President on his
podium.
There were a couple of nods and a few sleepy mumbles.
The President gestured for Dee to bring up the microphone from the sound booth
in the back. She briskly grabbed it and made her way up front, smiling
apologetically at the other assistants she had to elbow out of the way (well,
not too apologetically after they had all gotten together in the break room to
gossip about how she must have sabotaged poor Mrs Laughton). She got ready to
hand the microphone over as she usually did, windscreen down and power off.
Her grandmother’s face flashed in front of her eyes.
She’d be asleep right now, unaware of the literally looming threat. She saw her
university professor, with her sparkling eyes, advice and love for Plato. What
had she quoted in her first lecture? In that split second as she reached to
pass over the microphone, she heard her vibrant voice like it was her first day
in university all over again. “Good people don’t need laws to tell them to act
responsibly and bad people will find a way around the laws.”
She pressed the ON button and saw the red-light
flicker. The President didn’t.
“Really, this stupid space invasion is messing up my
schedule. Let’s get this over with.” He muttered but the sound-system boomed.
For the third time that day, in the highest government
building of the Free World Colony of Mars, pandemonium broke out. When the
significantly more eventful than planned Press Conference came to an end,
reporters running out of the room, calling their editors to report that the
humans were actually going to land on Mars this time, the President banged his
head against the podium. General Fa and Director Markus rounded up the other
commanders to head back to the Situation Room and Dee caught Marge’s eye across
the room. The older woman looked back at her and Dee knew that she knew it
wasn’t an accident. She was so fired. But Marge merely arched one of her thick
eyebrows and crooked her immaculately painted lips into a smirk before breezing
out of the room, grabbing the President with her.
Dee staggered to a chair and sank down. She stayed
there for the next couple of hours, only moving to pull out her phone and read
the flood of updating headlines.
All Civilians of Likely Causality Site, Area 15
successfully evacuated.
Human Spaceship touches down with no Martian
Casualties.
Government has issued warning that no contact is to be
made before Official Announcement.
Dee didn’t know what was going to happen next but one
thing was for sure, now that the humans knew life was out here, everything
would change. She almost pulled up a hotel booking for Uranus and was
contemplating how long a break she could take from university before Jarvis
from Admin called to ask where she was and did she not understand the
responsibilities of this job-
Dee figured she could always vacation after she
retired, right now, she seemed to be making a difference.
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