JUST SO YOU KNOW: WE’RE WITH THE JAPANESE
“I mean, what does that even mean?”
“Mr. President?”
“How can they side with Japs? the Nazis?”
“I don’t know, sir.”
Roosevelt paced the length of his office. Across from him sat Harrison Smith from the SETI research team working out of Washington.
“Explain it to me again,” he said. “Where’d we find it?”
“Our researchers picked up the signals, sir.”
“Hm,” he said. “Your SETI researchers.”
“Search for extraterrestrial intelligence,” he said. “The program’s still in the early stages—”
“But how’d you get the message?” Roosevelt asked, leaning over his desk.
“Radio waves, sir.”
“Radio waves.”
Harrison nodded.
Ten men—among them Wallace, Stimson, Marshall, and King—sat around the smoke-filled room.
“We make our way into Normandy, the end is in sight and now we get this message?”
“It doesn’t sound right, but—”
“No, it doesn’t sound right.”
“But I mean—”
“What are we supposed to do? Does anyone here have any fucking idea what we’re supposed to do?” He paced back and forth. “We could end this in a matter of months.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And the Soviets? They have any idea what’s going on here?”
“No, sir. They shouldn’t.”
“We’ll keep it that way.”
The floor creaked more and more as the president’s pacing endured.
“It seems to me we just have to get on with it, Mr. President,” Stimson said. “Forget about messages. The only sensible thing is to keep going.”
“Going, going…”
“The Soviets have a clear path to Berlin. The French can be liberated within days. The Japs don’t stand a goddam chance—we all know it.”
Roosevelt stopped and looked at the man. “You’re right. We know it, don’t we?”
Everyone nodded.
“Sir, it’s just—”
“You go back to your little research team and tell them to do whatever it is they do and forget about it. Let me know when these aliens actually show up, hm?”
“Yes sir,” Harrison said, surrounded by laughter.
“To Berlin,” Roosevelt said. “To Berlin!”
“Mr. Stalin, the Americans have just attacked Hiroshima,” a heavily accented man said.
Stalin exhaled, shaking his head.