"And we're back! I'm Tom Havish your trusty news anchor here at Fox News bringing you the fair and balanced news. Here with me as always is the lovely Joan Bordeaux." The anchor smiled at the camera bearing a row of sterling white teeth. His skin had that dull orange glow of a tanning bed with wrinkles of age accentuated by the harsh studio lighting. A certain voracious hunger rested in his blue eyes, which seldom left the camera. He looked as though he could pounce through the screen at any moment and devour the audience within. Next to him a woman, with mocha skin and jet black hair, sat stiff as plastic smiling at the camera. After a quick shuffling of papers Havish proceeded with the evening's top story.
"Boy, Joan did you see that shower last night?" He asked his cohost.
"Shower?" She replied almost robotically, "Skies where clear where I was Tom." She finished with a curt laugh, which mirrored closely to that of a wild dog.
"Oh you know what I'm talking about! The meteor shower! Sure was brilliant wasn't it?" Tom replied. Odd how it was his eyes stuck to the screen as if he spoke to the audience more than his companion. Joan laughed again.
"Yes it was Tom. For those out there that missed it, last night was the climax of the Perseid meteor shower and it's got scientific community baffled. Why is that Tom?" Joan replied tuning her tone of voice back to professional.
"Physicists across the country are baffled by the early appearance of the meteor shower, which came almost half a year earlier than it was predicated. Researchers at the New Mexico Research Institute have released reports showing the volume of atmosphere entrees was five times higher than previous years, but they have no idea why." Tom reported.
Joan began to segue into an off handed opinion when suddenly the television shut off. On the other side of the screen a man sat in his office chair staring at the blank screen. In the reflection he could see a tall suited figure in the doorway. When the man at the desk looked he saw the man held the remote that extinguished his show.
"I was watching that." He said gruffly, sitting back in his seat.
"It'll be in the papers tomorrow." The other replied entering the room. He tossed the remote as he walked and it landed with a thud on the Victorian leather couch. The tall man place a stack of thin Manila folders on the desk then took a seat.
"It's getting worse Bob." The tall man said as he straightened his tie.
"And you think I haven't noticed?" Bob replied with a growl. His low voice rumbled in his chest.
"I'm just expressing my concern. The situation is rapidly spinning out of our control." The spook responded. He gestured at the folders on the desk. Bob picked up the first folder and opened it.
"Half a dozen meteor events in just as many months isn't good for secrecy. There are members of the public who're beginning to stumble onto things they shouldn't." The tall man spoke as Bob poured over the folders.
"Isn't it the job of your men to take care of the looky-loo's?" Bob said absently.
"This isn't the Ohio Incident or Area 51, we don't have a largely oblivious public laughing at poorly written articles tucked in the back of local newspapers. We have YouTube, and Facebook, and a myriad of other places. My people are doing what they can to douse the fires, but Bob..." Bob looked up at the tall man and saw a hint of concern. "It's a new age. Information spreads like a California wildfire and with the internet it can jump halfway across the world in seconds. As I said before the situation is rapidly spinning out of control."
Bob set the folders aside, "What about our smokescreen?"
"What your talking heads on Fox? CNN? BBC? Viacom? Public faith in large networks is at an all time low. Your smoke screen is hitting a demographic largely composed of middle aged conservatives."
Bob chewed on his tongue a moment. "These events..." He started, "They're supposed to be slowing down. The Jino-"
The Tall man hissed a warning.
"They," Bob corrected himself annoyed, "said debris would slow after a time. If these reports you've given me are to believed, this is only the beginning."
"Our guys on the ISS have reported that they are quickly losing control of the situation." The tall man replied.
Thwack! Bob slammed an open hand down on his desk. "Unacceptable!" He snarled, "When they signed the agreement thirty years ago this wasn't the deal. Do you have any idea what would happen to the American government if the general public got word that aliens were using the moon as an FOB in a war they were losing!? The agreement was Europa... Or Venus, whatever one of those inhospitable rocks those ammonia breathers love so much."
"You don't have to remind me what the deal was Bob." The suited man said calmly, "I don't think they were expected whatever it is that they're afraid of to follow them here."
"And what is that exactly?" Bob could feel his blood pressure rising. The tall man only shrugged and Bob tweezed the bridge of his nose with a finger and a thumb. Whether the spook knew or didn't know it didn't matter.
"What's our next move?" He said after regaining his composure.
"DOD has already begun working on schematics for orbital weaponry. Russians and Chinese will begin preparations next month. As for future outlook we'll probably have to start a proxy war to cover spending. I'll forward you a list of likely candidates, but as it's looking most likely the Middle East again." The tall man brushed some dust off his jacket.
"I understand. I'm frustrated we're doing this again, the Russians just pulled out of Syria two months ago. What about the ammonia breathers?"
"It's not going well. You'll see in those reports that an increasing amount of debris is reaching Earth's surface. Most have been identified as fractured pieces of one of their larger ships. A Kraken Class dreadnought I believe is what your people are calling it." The tall man rose from his seat, checked his watch, and buttoned his jacket.
"Should we get in contact with this other species?" Bob asked as the tall man began to leave.
"I'm afraid that would be most unwise." He responded turning for the door. "As always Robert, it's been a pleasure."
"Wait!" Bob said loudly. The tall man stopped in the door. "If they lose up there, what's to stop the winner from coming down here? We need to hedge our bets in this situation. For the continuity of our species."
The tall man turned back his face was dark and draped with grief, "Unfortunately, there are far worse things in the galaxy and unlike you and I, they aren't interested in talking. Should the Jino-... Should they lose... Well then I assume you and I will be having a discussion about that, for as you say, the continuity of species."
The tall man then nodded and disappeared down the hall. After a moment of silence, Bob rose from his desk and walked over to the window. The purplish evening sky was just now beginning to yield the dim twinkling of stars. Off in the darkened eastern sky a flash caught Bob's eye. Three long streaking meteors arced across the sky one after the other and burned out somewhere behind the tree line. Bob closed his eyes, the parting words of the spook sticking in his head, Will be having a discussion about that.