Welcome

BACKGROUND

One of assumptions underlying this novel is that life will evolve anywhere there is a life-supporting energy source. Thus, on Planet Earth, animals burn hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide as their energy source, and plants use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide and water to hydrocarbons.

On Planet Kronos, oxygen and water are scarce. So the animals that evolve depend on an electrochemical diet and the chemistry of their bodies is very different from ours. They have neither lungs nor blood. Don't need them.

Another underlying assumption is that survival of the fittest is a universal rule, applying to all life forms everywhere. And, since mobility and intelligence are features promoting survival, these are features that will appear in the life forms from other planets.

These are things the defenders of Planet Earth learn as they do battle with the attack fleet from Kronos. Fortunately, the superior technology of the forces from Kronos doesn't carry through to superior intelligence in all things.

The Diamonds of Kronos now contains an error that all of us wish were not so. The space shuttle Columbia didn't survive to play its heroic role in the year 2008 described in chapters 14 & 15. Hopefully, it will play a major role in building better shuttles.

Based on what we know today, it's fair to believe that an attack fleet coming from beyond our solar system is highly improbable. The distances are measured in light years and space ships travelling at the speed of light are far beyond our present technology. But, long ago, we believed that the sun orbited the earth, and a little less than a century ago most people believed that airplanes were impossible. And, way back when I was young, and atomic energy and computers were unknown to all but a very few, we enjoyed the adventures of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in outer space and dreamed that such things were possible.

The term "Science Fiction" is one of those uniquely appropriate names, combining the rigorous factual connotation of science with the freely imaginative views of fiction. If nothing else, it may be one of those areas in which the human mind is superior to the computer, storing fact and fiction side by side, not losing track of which is fact and which is fiction, and working to wrest new facts from all that imaginary stuff.

For this novel, I spent four years collecting 28 rejections. Among these was one publisher I negotiated with for 8 months before concluding that we were both wasting our time. Where science fiction is concerned, I think it's a hot genre with too few conventional publishers and is ripe for more self-publishing efforts.

The first chapter of The Diamonds Of Kronos is shown below. You may print one copy if you like, but multiple copies or distribution are expressly prohibited.

THE DIAMONDS OF KRONOS

Chapter 1 - Ultimatum

The arrival of the attack fleet had been so swift that radar had provided essentially no warning until the alien ships decelerated into a high polar orbit around planet Earth. Sergeant Ortman at Thule in Greenland had been the first to see the alien fleet on his radar screen. It was 2 AM Atlantic Standard Time, June 21, 2008. He had peered at the fast-moving blips on the screen through the vapors rising from his coffee mug, then turned to Corporal Timz and said, "Damned radar's on the fritz again."

John Tally at NASA's Cape Kennedy may have been the second to see the fleet, though there were dozens of other contenders for that honor. He watched the blips for a moment, checked his radar against known satellites, and felt goose bumps rising over his entire body. "Tom!" he called to his nearest neighbor, "We've got UFOs!"

Tom ambled over and looked at the screen. "You're sure it's not just a glitch?" he asked.

"Reasonably," John said, trying to sound professional.

"I'll check with Houston," Tom said, also trying to sound professional.

When he got Houston on the line, Houston spoke first, "You-all calling about those UFOs?" Houston asked, and it was Tom's turn to feel the rising of goose bumps.

After that, the news went leap-frogging across the world's military and space community. Radar counted fifteen ships in the fleet. They made three complete orbits before the alien commander broadcast his demand at 0700 hours, Eastern Standard Time, that all governments of the Earth surrender to him within the hour. Each nation received the message in its own language.

Hours before the ultimatum, there was a barely controlled pandemonium in each nation's capital as key people were summoned into conference, a third of them rousted out of bed as if by a fire alarm. Much of the first hour was spent in convincing people that the alien fleet was real.

An electronic conference was soon convened between the leaders of the major powers. Lesser nations were patched in or denied admission as security determined whether their circuits were vulnerable to alien eavesdropping.

The leaders of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Europe, Russia, China, and Japan quickly agreed not to surrender. Each issued combat readiness orders to all of its armed forces. All over planet Earth, planes, ships, tanks, missiles, and troops were being armed and dispersed.

The American President and his key advisors had moved to the Virginia Command Center, a complex that had been carved into the mountains of Virginia during the cold war confrontations between the USA amd the old USSR. General Krieg, Chief of Staff, had preceded the President and had brought along Marshal Zukin, a major figure in the Russian Space Command, who had been on an inspection tour in the USA at the time. Also prominent among the President's advisors was Dr. Ellen Zyn, the NASA Director of Advanced Projects. They were installed in the teleconference room, each on video, wired for sound, and facing a bank of TV screens connected to the distant foreign capitals.

In the torrent of discussion that followed, it was soon obvious that the differing viewpoints were more professional than nationalistic. The diplomats of all nations wanted to stall, talk, negotiate. The military staffs wanted permission to launch a coordinated pre-emptive attack, convinced that the first strike by either side would decide the winner. The scientists, had a hybrid viewpoint, wanting to negotiate while they learned what they could of the alien's weapons and defenses. They had almost immediately begun efforts to adapt existing satellites to probe the alien fleet.

"Knowledge is power," Dr. Zyn insisted, her eyes looking owlish behind the severe dark glasses she wore to make a too-young face seem more authoritative. "Right now, the aliens seem to know everything about us and we know virtually nothing of them. We must learn all we can of them before entering into hostilities."

"You speak of a luxury we cannot afford," Marshal Zukin said. "Common sense tells me their ships can be destroyed with atomic warheads. Nothing will impress them quite so much as a prompt and vigorous attack."

"I agree that your atomic warheads could probably destroy any of their ships that you could hit," Dr. Zyn said. "The question is whether you could hit them. They may have superior defensive systems or may be able to out-run your missiles. Remember, also, that multiple atomic explosions in our near-space environment will cripple communications with our own satellites, which are beginning to provide pictures, mass information, and spectroscopic data on the alien ships."

General krieg joined the conversation on the side of moderation. "Considering the damage that atomic fallout can do to ourselves, I suggest that our initial strike against them be with a volley of conventional warheads to see what percentage might score hits," he said. "Assuming that our satellites remain intact, we can see just how the aliens respond."

"The fact that the aliens have mastered space travel proves that they have a high level of intelligence," Mrs. Greenstern, the Israeli Premier, said. "Such beings may be more impressed with the intelligence of our response than by its force."

"If they're so damned intelligent," Marshal Zukin asked, "why should they attack in a manner guaranteed to unite us? They could have made an alliance that would have half of us fighting the other half."

"Yes, a very good question," the Chinese Premier agreed. "Do they have some crucial weakness that an earth ally would quickly discover, or are they so supremely powerful as to need no allies?"

"Bluffing or not, we are going to call their hand," President Lawrence of the United States said. "We shall not surrender, no matter what the cost."

"We are agreed on that," the Japanese Prime Minister said. "Within a few minutes, I shall address my nation to ask the people to stand together in support of their government's decisions. They have heard the alien threat for themselves. I shall remind them that their government cannot speak freely without aiding the aliens, but I shall ask them to prepare quickly for the possibility of war."

"Yes, I expect that each of us had best attend to that before the ultimatum hour is up," the British Prime Minister said.

Earth's leaders then left the general discussion to prepare their national broadcasts.

The scientific group soon had video views of the alien ships and preliminary estimates of their size, weight, and surface composition. Each ship was cigar-shaped, roughly a mile long, about 800 feet in diameter, and weighed about 270,000 tons. The forward end was some sort of chrome-moly steel, the midsection was largely ceramic, and the tail had at least some parts of tungsten. There were a great many hatches in rows along the ceramic mid-section. Most of the hatches were closed, but the videos caught a few in the process of opening or closing, somewhat like eyelids. Each open hatch displayed a tubular device which appeared to be a weapon or sensor of some kind.

"Doctor Boronikov, what do you make of it?" Dr. Zyn asked her Russian counterpart.

"Huge," Dr. Boronikov answered. "I estimate 23,000 hatches on each ship. Assuming two crewmen to a hatch, and a ten-to-one officer ratio, each ship would have a crew of at least 50,000. The whole fleet may contain nearly a million creatures of some kind."

"Where's their weak spot?" Marshal Zukin asked.

"The tungsten in the tail section puzzles me," Dr. Zyn said. "Tungsten keeps its strength at high temperatures in space, but it oxidizes very quickly in air at high temperatures. It could be a weak spot if they enter our atmosphere and their tail section gets too hot. Also, the cigar shape and the differences in the ends indicates that they are unidirectional; perhaps not highly maneuverable."

"Why are they so streamlined?" Dr. Stern of Germany wondered. "Empty space doesn't require it unless they travel at incredible velocity."

"That may be exactly it," Dr. Zyn said. "They may have chosen a small cross-section to minimize the hazards of collision with micrometeorites. We've played back the radar data on their approach to Earth. It doesn't record their top speed, but could be consistent with travel near the speed of light. They were decelerating rapidly when first detected and may have orbited the sun before approaching us."

"Should I give a damn whether they orbited the sun before approaching us?" Marshal Zukin asked.

"Yes," Dr. Zyn said. "Their ability to decelerate may reveal something of their ability to accelerate. In spite of their high cruising velocity, they may be very ponderous in starting and stopping."

The world leaders returned to the conference then. "The ultimatum hour is nearly up," the British Prime Minister said. "Shall we appoint a spokesperson? We will certainly appear more unified if we answer with one voice."

"That may be a crucial decision," the Israeli Prime Minister said. "If the aliens are vindictive, they may strike first at the spokesperson's nation."

"We have no time to debate it," the Russian President said. "I suggest we each write in the name of our nominee on a sheet of paper, then, when all are ready, we show our written choice to the cameras. The chosen one must serve."

Whether it might be called winning or losing, President Lawrence of the United States was chosen as the spokesperson. He was stunned and troubled by the choice, but hid his feelings and accepted the job. It was the same sense of duty that had gotten him out of retirement nearly four years ago at age 76 to run for the Presidency. In his own estimation, the only thing he had going for himself was a long track record of successfully blundering through a lot of tough situations.

shortly afterward, the radio message came through from the alien commander, "Your hour is up. Do you agree to surrender?"

"We are willing to negotiate," President Lawrence replied. "If you need assistance, we are willing to assist you. We welcome peaceful talks to find mutually beneficial areas of cooperation. But we shall never surrender our freedom. If you attack, we will destroy you at any cost to ourselves."

There was a long pause as virtually everyone on the International Command Network awaited the alien reply, half expecting it to come as a devastating attack. Instead, the alien commander spoke again, "That is a very foolish choice," the alien said. "We see that your mentality is not swift. Therefore, we grant you another twenty-four hours to make a wiser choice. If you do not surrender then, we will destroy you."

There was joy in the command centers. "The bastards are bluffing!" Marshal Zukin crowed.

Bluffing or not, it gives us more time to mobilize," General Krieg said.

"Let's pray that they leave our satellites alone," Dr. Zyn added. "Either they don't realize their importance to us or they're too overconfident to worry about them."

"We must try to keep the dialogue going," the British Secretary of State said. "Perhaps we can extend the truce to a week, a month, a year, and eventually reach a peaceful accord."

"No!" Marshal Zukin barked. "When we are fully mobilized, we must attack, even if they do not!"

General Krieg was more diplomatic. "With all due respect for the Secretary's opinion," he said, "I must agree with Marshal Zukin. We cannot allow them to keep us on the edge of presumed disaster. At some point, no more than a month, we must tell them to get the hell out of our space or accept the consequences."

"Good!" Marshal Zukin agreed. "Underneath the philosopher, I see a soldier!"

During the next 23 hours, only the diplomatic corps people stayed glued to the command television screens, endlessly discussing negotiating strategy and occasionally agreeing on a communique to be sent to the aliens by the American president. The aliens answered none of the communiques.

Dr. Zyn and her world-wide collegues eagerly exchanged and compiled bits of information gleaned from their satellites. The alien ships were in a line, coasting in a circular polar orbit about 1,000 miles above earth. That much of the alien strategy seemed logical. Their equal spacing in a polar orbit allowed them to keep most of the earth in view at all times. It would probably also allow them to concentrate the fire of three ships simultaneously at any point on earth. One could argue that two groups in polar orbits ninety degrees apart might be better, but it wouldn't be a conclusive argument.

One puzzling thing about the orbiting aliens was that each ship was orbiting with a definite nose-high tilt.

"It's very peculiar, that tilted attitude their ships have," Dr. Zyn said.

"Probably just a way to stay out of the engine blast of the ship ahead," someone suggested.

"No. That's what's peculiar," Dr. Zyn insisted. "The engine blast would otherwise be tangential to their circular orbit and miss each following ship. Their tilted attitude puts each following ship exactly in the backwash."

"Yes, so it does," the Englishman from Jodrell Bank agreed. "That falls in line with a hair-brained notion I've got, if you'd care to hear it."

"Don't be coy, Dr. Heatherstone," Dr. Zyn coaxed.

"I'm guessing that the alien ships are propelled by electron emission. At any rate, there was a world-wide disturbance in the ionosphere and a crashing amount of static on our Jodrell Bank receivers when the alien ships arrived. Also, I associate tungsten with electron emission and I'm accustomed to believe that electron emission has to leave a positive charge somewhere, so the alien ships may be highly polar; negative at the tungsten end and positive at the chrome-moly steel end. Deliberately putting one ship in the distant backwash of another, may actually improve their energy efficiency."

"It's ..... possible," Dr. Zyn agreed slowly. "It could also account for the cigar shape and the ceramic mid-section. It would accomodate an extreme voltage difference between the ends."

After considerable discussion, Dr. Zyn advised the military group that the alien weaponry was likely to be electrical or electrically-powered; possibly in the nature of lasers, force fields, particle beams, and lightning bolts.

"How do we pull the plug?" General Krieg asked.

"Overload their circuits," Dr. Zyn suggested. "No matter how well they fend off your attack, if you can maintain it long enough, their circuits may overload and fail."

General Krieg decided to act on her advice. The orders he gave his staff called for a general strategy of massive conventional attack, with a limited number of atomic warheads to be kept ready for use only in case of extreme emergency or advantage.

Marshal Zukin reluctantly agreed to follow suit with his Russian forces. "So we play chess, eh?" he said. "We feed them pawns to open the path to checkmate."

Dr. Zyn added a pointed warning, "Although we believe their propulsion and weaponry to be electronic, it's quite likely that their central power sources are fission or fusion reactors. If they are fission reactors, their destruction could release a horrible amount of radioactive garbage."

"Well, let's hope they're intelligent enough to have had more success with fusion reactors than we have," General Krieg said, a rare smile flickering across his face.

Dr. Zyn felt the barb strike home. The general knew full well that she had spent ten years on fusion power research, a monstrously expensive effort that had been creeping along for a half century, more or less, still seeking that elusive breakthrough to something practical and useful. Still, she had been lucky; she had not taken sides in the cold fusion fiasco.

The world's civilian populations were receiving no broadcast news that the security people considered unsafe for alien ears. According to the radio and television news services, negotiations were hopeful but war remained a strong possibility. The newspapers though, were telling a more direct story. A separate front page, attached to all newspapers was labeled, "Security Information - Broadcast Is A War Crime." This page told of the troop mobilizations, military priorities, manpower needs at munitions plants, emergency shelters, etc. It also assured the populace that progress was being made in analyzing the alien technology, and that a united Earth, willing to make the necessary sacrifices, would defeat the aliens in the event of war.

Rocket facilities, world wide, were in a frenzy of activity, mating smart upper-stage missiles to massive first-stage boosters; the necessary configuration to reach the orbiting alien ships. NASA's space shuttles were standing by a stockpile of rockets having both conventional and nuclear warheads. All civilian space shuttle personnel became military personnel at a stroke of President Lawrence's pen. This had particular meaning for Dr. Zyn, whose husband, Colonel Steve Zyn, was a shuttle commander.

The American Congress convened briefly to grant President Lawrence virtually unlimited war powers, then absconded from Washington, which was presumed to be a prime target for the alien.

It was the world-wide missile effort that posed the greatest challenge to Earth's unity. Such an effort demanded a unified fire control network. There was no other way that missiles from China, Russia, Europe, the United States, India, Australia, and Israel could hit the aiens in a precisely timed sequence. Yet, the moment the fire control computers of those nations were linked, each nation had to assume that the secrets in its memory banks were fully compromised. It had to be done. Each nation began designing and testing the necessary programming to maximize systems compatibility.

When the 24-hour warning period elapsed, the alien again broadcast his message, "Your time is up, Planet Earth. Do you surrender?"

"Our answer remains as it was," President Lawrence replied. "We shall defend our freedom at any price."

"Very well," the alien said. "We shall begin with a small demonstration of our destructive power. You may surrender when it becomes obvious to you that you have no choice."

One alien ship slowly turned end-for-end, then decelerated, falling towards a lower orbit until it was geostationary over New York city.

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