STEP BACK, Part 5

It was at this time that the Defense Minister, Marshall of the Soviet Union Andrei Grechko, spoke up.

“Comrades, seven years ago the Americans conducted a nuclear weapon test in outer space over the Pacific Ocean. The electromagnetic pulse given off by the weapon killed roughly one third of the satellites in orbit at the time. I now believe that we can do the same to the starship.”

“You can hit it and destroy it?” Asked the Industry Minister.

“No.” Grechko replied. “We only need to place a nuclear weapon in close proximity to the vessel. The electromagnetic pulse will render its command and control systems inert.”

“How do you plan to do this?” Brezhnev said.

“The Proton rocket can launch a six ton payload to that altitude. And we should be able to assemble a weapon within that mass using existing components.”

Brezhnev looked around the room before speaking again.

“Are there any objections?”

Gorbachev did think of an objection. What if the Star People had intercepted the weapon or it otherwise failed? What would stop them from retaliating in kind?

But given his present situation he decided to remain silent.

Seeing that there were no objections Brezhnev spoke again.

“Comrade Grechko, you will proceed with this operation.”

He then looked down to Gorbachev.

“Comrade Gorbachev, you will go directly to the United States and directly speak to the leader of the Star People. Make him an offer that he will accept to come over to the Soviet side.”

“Yes, Comrade General Secretary.” Gorbachev replied.

How the Hell was he supposed to do that? He thought.

On Saturday evening in a mass meeting was being held, William Grant stood before the multitude assembled within the Minneapolis Auditorium. Deliberated seated in the front rows of the audience were the widows and orphaned children of the Minneapolis police officers killed by the Uptimers.

He looked upon the assembled multitude and spoke.

“My friends, I normally come to you to bring the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ, but that is not my mission for this evening. On the Thursday of this week a great crime was committed. Police officers of this great city were brutally and systemically hunted down and murdered. Why?”

Grant paused and looked out again at the assembled audience.

“These men were murdered for simply doing their duty to this great community. Those who committed these murders claimed to have traveled backwards in time, an act that is a simply violation of God's law. They also claim that there is no God and that he did not send his son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to teach us the truth and to ultimately die for our sins. In speaking these falsehoods they deceived themselves and now are attempting to deceive us. But we will not be deceived, we will hold to God's truth, and we will ultimately prevail.”

In a three story building on the corner of Ninth Street and LaSalle Avenue in downtown Minneapolis a meeting was being held in the news department of WCCO Television. The station was an affiliate of the CBS Television Network but on this evening they were, even on a very short notice, broadcasting the William Grant Crusade. And as with the normal broadcasts of the Crusade program the station was videotaping the normal network programming for broadcast at a later time.

“Can you believe this shit?” Someone said in the back of the room.

The CBS Network in New York had originally declined to broadcast the Uptimer version of the events, including the video of the initial encounter between Boatman and the local cops. But when WTCN, an independent station, had broadcast the encounter on their news program and WCCO had to quickly follow suit.

As a result it was also a damned good thing that the 101 st Airborne Division was now policing the city instead of the MPD.

On the monitor of the broadcast Grant continued to speak.

“So who are these depraved beings who murder good men at will and with apparent impunity? These beings are clearly the servants of Satan...”

Roger Allen, the head of the News department switched off the monitor.

“This has to be a breach of our contract with the network.” He said.

Dave Moore, who normally read the local evening news during the week spoke up.

“So what do we do?”

“Damned if I know, Dave.” Roger replied. “I will be damned if I know. What the Hell was Boatman doing here in the first place?”

A reporter spoke up.

“Apparently he was here to speak with several technology firms about adopting their technology.”

“So what was he doing at the White Castle?” Dave asked.

“According to one manager for a local firm I spoke to Boatman apparently fell in love with the sliders when he went to college in California.”

“They have White Castles in California?” Dave asked again.

“Apparently in Twenty-one-twenty Anno Domini they will.”

Dave nodded.

Roger spoke again.

“Apparently the network dropped the ball on this one, and we should have done a better job covering this story ourselves. From now on we will report the facts on this story regardless of whose toes we end up stepping on. Is that clear?”

Everyone in the room spoke or nodded in agreement.

“Now let’s get to work.”

In the family home outside of Dallas, Texas, Judith Grant sat in the living room with her family and watched her father on his broadcast from Minneapolis.

“So who are these depraved beings who murder good men at will and with apparent impunity? These beings are clearly the servants of Satan, sent here to deceive us and turn us from the path of righteousness.”

Without permission Judith had seen the independent television news coverage of the initial incident between the leader of the Uptimers and the Minneapolis Police. And the police in this incident were clearly not acting in the proper manner.

Why would her father lie about this? She privately thought to herself.

She continued to sit and watch the broadcast.

At the Uptimer base in Nevada Evelyn Boatman sat up in his hospital bed and also watched the broadcast. Normally he would have preferred to read a transcript. Those who claimed to have knowledge were very annoying to those in actual possession of same. And man on the screen strongly reminded Boatman of an evangelist on the original timeline who claimed that passage of destructive effects of Niven 69 were God’s punishment of humanity for their collective sins.

What a moron. He had thought at the time.

He had another thought. If Grant continued to be a problem he would have to dealt with. Just as the aboriginal natives of the planet Eden were.