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Dec. 10th, 2007 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gone_byebye"Mr. Keller?" said Ray as he walked out of Milliways and into the Secretary of Defense's office. "It's good to meet you, sir."
Secretary of Defense Keller was a blue-eyed, black-suited man somewhere in his sixties. He had the look of one of those men who would never go bald, his dark grey hair instead shot through with more and more silver as time went on. He had a look of more alertness than one might expect about him, coming to his feet to greet Ray with the sort of speed and precision of movement one might expect of a man half his age. "Good to meet you too, Dr. Stantz," he said, shaking Ray's hand firmly. "I'd say 'Ambassador', but I understand the Senate hasn't finished voting yet."
"No, sir, not that I know of."
"Fine, fine." Keller indicated one of the chairs across the desk from him. "Sit down, please. I have no doubts in my mind whatsoever about your confirmation, and we've got a lot to talk about."
Ray tried not to let too much of his sudden nervousness ( I will not fear, fear is the mind-killer ) rise into his expression. Answering congressional questions scared the bahoogies out of him because he was reasonably sure that everyone in Congress other than maybe Ben Nighthorse wanted to pull him apart to see how he ticked. This man was another story altogether. Ray had very little talent for reading his fellow humans' body language, but even by Ray's standards Keller was a closed book. Whatever Keller had on his mind, it wasn't manifesting as more than an expression of thoughtful interest. "We most definitely do," Ray said. "You first, if you don't mind."
Keller gave a short but real-looking smile before coming around to a chair on the same side of the desk as Ray. "That's a little more spirit than you showed out there on the Senate floor," he observed. "Good. It's more in line with what I know of you. Your country didn't tap you for this kind of service because you knew how to be polite. We've got a whole diplomatic corps to tap for that."
"In all honesty, Mr. Secretary, that wasn't manners out there." Ray had decided that he might as well cut straight to the chase with Keller; he had a feeling that the other man would know exactly what to ask to get there in the fastest way possible anyway. "That was a bad night's sleep cut liberally with pure, unadulterated terror."
"Stage fright? Or more the people that you were up against?"
"The latter more than the former. I can usually forget about stage fright if I have good reason to try."
Keller nodded. "Can't blame you. The current crop in Congress is exactly what this country elected to office- a bunch of time-servers and panderers with a handful of decently hard workers who slipped in there by mistake when no one was looking. Doesn't make 'em any less dangerous when they think they've got you cornered, though."
He looked significantly at Ray, who floundered about for some kind of response. "I honestly couldn't say, sir," Ray finally managed. "I've only had to testify before Congress once before, and that time was on purely scientific matters, not theoretical speculation about how I'd do in a job field for which I'm pretty much completely and utterly unqualified, or at least untrained."
"Mm. I'd say more the latter than the former, but that's neither here nor there right now." Keller waved a hand. "You'll do well enough when the time comes, if you know what it is you've got to do. I've been reading the articles about you and your colleagues. You guys're good under pressure. Maybe not soldier material, other than your friend Winston, but not too shabby for civilians."
"Thank you, sir," said Ray. When a man had served multiple tours of duty in Vietnam before going into a civilian life in politics, a statement like that wasn't the kind of thing that got handed out lightly.
"You're welcome."
"That's not why you've asked to meet with me, though, is it, sir."
"Not really, no," Keller admitted. "Except in the sense that the pressure's on, but I hope you knew that."
"From the Navy? In their shoes I'd be similarly tense-"
"The United States Navy's response to the Deep Ones, believe it or not, is currently my secondary concern," said Keller dryly. "What I'm more concerned about right now is a very specific coalition of America's allies, and the delegation they sent to meet with me and several other Cabinet officials recently."
That was a surprise. Without thinking, Ray tilted his head curiously.
"The allies in question are the Finns, the Danes, and the Canadians," said Keller. "More specifically, their northern watch bureaus, so to speak. Dr. Stantz, you're the parapsychologist, not me. I've done my best to understand what happened on the International Space Station back last December, and it still gives me a throbbing headache. Those three nations take what happened up there very seriously indeed, and they've apparently been wary of just such a situation for a while now- but they'd been preparing for it to erupt here, on Earth, not in orbit."
"... uh," said Ray, his train of thought temporarily derailed.
"That's pretty much what my initial response looked like," Keller said. "Seems the Canadians've had a northern watch bureau in place since the 1890s and never clued us in on it because it wasn't a matter of territorial sovereignty, just a kind of environmental monitoring."
"Environmental monitoring in the 1890's?" Ray said. "That's seriously improbable by any stretch of-"
"I'm aware of that, Dr. Stantz. Turns out 'environmental monitoring' was a gross understatement at best. The kinds of monitoring the Canadians've been doing have all been the result of a group of North-West Mounted Police encountering something called 'Ithaqua the Wind Walker'. That name mean anything to you?" Keller paused. "Are you all right? You suddenly don't look so good."
"I'm- I'll be fine," Ray managed ( fear is the little death that brings total obliteration ). "Ithaqua? They met Ithaqua? How did anybody survive to tell about it?"
"Apparently? Most of 'em didn't. A grand total of one Mountie made it back to civilization to give evidence before dying of pure terror." Keller scowled for a moment. "You can get the details later. The point is that the Canadians've been aware of a possible paranormal threat to all of human civilization in the farthest north since the turn of the twentieth century. The Finns and the Danes got in on the act later. All three countries've been monitoring the top of the world for the same kind of thing that attempted to invade our planetary airspace through the International Space Station."
Ray slouched a little in his chair. "Something's woken up, hasn't it?" he said.
"No, not to my knowledge," said Keller, "but Project Pohjola, the Inquanok Patrol, and the Ministry of Extraordinary Threats all seem to think that something's going to. And that's where you come in."
Just the sort of thing Ray wanted to hear, in the way where he totally didn't want to hear it at all. Still, he nodded and tried to sit up straight.
"Despite the best attempts of our allies to get through to them that it's a bad idea, the Russians intend to launch a submarine under the Arctic ice to sound out the exact distribution of the continental shelf that underlies their northern land mass," said Keller. "They're looking to expand their arctic sovereignty all the way to the Pole. Canada, Finland, and Denmark are all pretty well unanimous in saying that this is a bad idea- not just for political reasons, but because of data of theirs that I can't even begin to pretend to understand. They've told me what it supposedly says, but the important part is that they believe there's a real risk of a repeat of the Space Station incident if the Russians aren't stopped. We might be able to cut the Russians off ourselves, but I'm not going to ask that this country make that kind of a move without some cold, hard, verified data about what's going on."
"And you think the Deep Ones have it," Ray said slowly.
"Any species that can live in direct proximity to human maritime traffic for as long as they've done it and not been detected has got to have something up their sleeves," Keller said. "I understand they trust you, or at least think enough of you to've put your name forward themselves. I need you to get whatever information you can out of 'em specifically about this possible polar threat before the Russians go through with their sub trip." He smiled a little, though this time it was a lot more perfunctory. "Like I said, Dr. Stantz, the pressure's on. You're supposed to be good under pressure as long as there aren't marshmallows involved. I just hope it's good enough."
Secretary of Defense Keller was a blue-eyed, black-suited man somewhere in his sixties. He had the look of one of those men who would never go bald, his dark grey hair instead shot through with more and more silver as time went on. He had a look of more alertness than one might expect about him, coming to his feet to greet Ray with the sort of speed and precision of movement one might expect of a man half his age. "Good to meet you too, Dr. Stantz," he said, shaking Ray's hand firmly. "I'd say 'Ambassador', but I understand the Senate hasn't finished voting yet."
"No, sir, not that I know of."
"Fine, fine." Keller indicated one of the chairs across the desk from him. "Sit down, please. I have no doubts in my mind whatsoever about your confirmation, and we've got a lot to talk about."
Ray tried not to let too much of his sudden nervousness ( I will not fear, fear is the mind-killer ) rise into his expression. Answering congressional questions scared the bahoogies out of him because he was reasonably sure that everyone in Congress other than maybe Ben Nighthorse wanted to pull him apart to see how he ticked. This man was another story altogether. Ray had very little talent for reading his fellow humans' body language, but even by Ray's standards Keller was a closed book. Whatever Keller had on his mind, it wasn't manifesting as more than an expression of thoughtful interest. "We most definitely do," Ray said. "You first, if you don't mind."
Keller gave a short but real-looking smile before coming around to a chair on the same side of the desk as Ray. "That's a little more spirit than you showed out there on the Senate floor," he observed. "Good. It's more in line with what I know of you. Your country didn't tap you for this kind of service because you knew how to be polite. We've got a whole diplomatic corps to tap for that."
"In all honesty, Mr. Secretary, that wasn't manners out there." Ray had decided that he might as well cut straight to the chase with Keller; he had a feeling that the other man would know exactly what to ask to get there in the fastest way possible anyway. "That was a bad night's sleep cut liberally with pure, unadulterated terror."
"Stage fright? Or more the people that you were up against?"
"The latter more than the former. I can usually forget about stage fright if I have good reason to try."
Keller nodded. "Can't blame you. The current crop in Congress is exactly what this country elected to office- a bunch of time-servers and panderers with a handful of decently hard workers who slipped in there by mistake when no one was looking. Doesn't make 'em any less dangerous when they think they've got you cornered, though."
He looked significantly at Ray, who floundered about for some kind of response. "I honestly couldn't say, sir," Ray finally managed. "I've only had to testify before Congress once before, and that time was on purely scientific matters, not theoretical speculation about how I'd do in a job field for which I'm pretty much completely and utterly unqualified, or at least untrained."
"Mm. I'd say more the latter than the former, but that's neither here nor there right now." Keller waved a hand. "You'll do well enough when the time comes, if you know what it is you've got to do. I've been reading the articles about you and your colleagues. You guys're good under pressure. Maybe not soldier material, other than your friend Winston, but not too shabby for civilians."
"Thank you, sir," said Ray. When a man had served multiple tours of duty in Vietnam before going into a civilian life in politics, a statement like that wasn't the kind of thing that got handed out lightly.
"You're welcome."
"That's not why you've asked to meet with me, though, is it, sir."
"Not really, no," Keller admitted. "Except in the sense that the pressure's on, but I hope you knew that."
"From the Navy? In their shoes I'd be similarly tense-"
"The United States Navy's response to the Deep Ones, believe it or not, is currently my secondary concern," said Keller dryly. "What I'm more concerned about right now is a very specific coalition of America's allies, and the delegation they sent to meet with me and several other Cabinet officials recently."
That was a surprise. Without thinking, Ray tilted his head curiously.
"The allies in question are the Finns, the Danes, and the Canadians," said Keller. "More specifically, their northern watch bureaus, so to speak. Dr. Stantz, you're the parapsychologist, not me. I've done my best to understand what happened on the International Space Station back last December, and it still gives me a throbbing headache. Those three nations take what happened up there very seriously indeed, and they've apparently been wary of just such a situation for a while now- but they'd been preparing for it to erupt here, on Earth, not in orbit."
"... uh," said Ray, his train of thought temporarily derailed.
"That's pretty much what my initial response looked like," Keller said. "Seems the Canadians've had a northern watch bureau in place since the 1890s and never clued us in on it because it wasn't a matter of territorial sovereignty, just a kind of environmental monitoring."
"Environmental monitoring in the 1890's?" Ray said. "That's seriously improbable by any stretch of-"
"I'm aware of that, Dr. Stantz. Turns out 'environmental monitoring' was a gross understatement at best. The kinds of monitoring the Canadians've been doing have all been the result of a group of North-West Mounted Police encountering something called 'Ithaqua the Wind Walker'. That name mean anything to you?" Keller paused. "Are you all right? You suddenly don't look so good."
"I'm- I'll be fine," Ray managed ( fear is the little death that brings total obliteration ). "Ithaqua? They met Ithaqua? How did anybody survive to tell about it?"
"Apparently? Most of 'em didn't. A grand total of one Mountie made it back to civilization to give evidence before dying of pure terror." Keller scowled for a moment. "You can get the details later. The point is that the Canadians've been aware of a possible paranormal threat to all of human civilization in the farthest north since the turn of the twentieth century. The Finns and the Danes got in on the act later. All three countries've been monitoring the top of the world for the same kind of thing that attempted to invade our planetary airspace through the International Space Station."
Ray slouched a little in his chair. "Something's woken up, hasn't it?" he said.
"No, not to my knowledge," said Keller, "but Project Pohjola, the Inquanok Patrol, and the Ministry of Extraordinary Threats all seem to think that something's going to. And that's where you come in."
Just the sort of thing Ray wanted to hear, in the way where he totally didn't want to hear it at all. Still, he nodded and tried to sit up straight.
"Despite the best attempts of our allies to get through to them that it's a bad idea, the Russians intend to launch a submarine under the Arctic ice to sound out the exact distribution of the continental shelf that underlies their northern land mass," said Keller. "They're looking to expand their arctic sovereignty all the way to the Pole. Canada, Finland, and Denmark are all pretty well unanimous in saying that this is a bad idea- not just for political reasons, but because of data of theirs that I can't even begin to pretend to understand. They've told me what it supposedly says, but the important part is that they believe there's a real risk of a repeat of the Space Station incident if the Russians aren't stopped. We might be able to cut the Russians off ourselves, but I'm not going to ask that this country make that kind of a move without some cold, hard, verified data about what's going on."
"And you think the Deep Ones have it," Ray said slowly.
"Any species that can live in direct proximity to human maritime traffic for as long as they've done it and not been detected has got to have something up their sleeves," Keller said. "I understand they trust you, or at least think enough of you to've put your name forward themselves. I need you to get whatever information you can out of 'em specifically about this possible polar threat before the Russians go through with their sub trip." He smiled a little, though this time it was a lot more perfunctory. "Like I said, Dr. Stantz, the pressure's on. You're supposed to be good under pressure as long as there aren't marshmallows involved. I just hope it's good enough."
