UNITED NATIONS, JULY 23 (WW)--THE UNITED NATIONS, FACED WITH THE
PROSPECT OF EXPANDING ITSELF FROM AN INTERNATIONAL TO A INTERPLANETARY
ORGANIZATION, TODAY CONSIDERED THE POSSIBILITY OF ASKING THE SPACEMEN
FROM MONOLITHIA TO MAKE THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL APPEARANCE AT A SPECIAL
GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING.
NILS NILSEN, THE SECRETARY-GENERAL, WAS REPORTED DRAFTING AN INVITATION
TO THE LEADERS OF THE ALIEN GROUP SUGGESTING A MEETING IN HIS 38TH
FLOOR OFFICE OF THE SKYSCRAPER HEADQUARTERS. INFORMED SOURCES SAID THAT
IF NILSEN THEN WAS CONVINCED OF THE SINCERITY OF THE SPACEMEN, WHO HAVE
ASKED TO JOIN THE UNITED NATIONS, HE WOULD CONVENE A SPECIAL ASSEMBLY
AT WHICH THE ALIEN LEADER WOULD PUBLICLY STATE HIS CASE....
Stew Macon came in, saying: "Well, how are all you inhabitants of the
second greatest planet in creation this historic morning?"
"Keeping the old chin up, Stew," I said. "Say, while you were grappling
with that dictionary piece yesterday, did you ever find out what the
opposite of monolithic is?"
"Come to think of it, no." He grinned. "Paleolithic, maybe?"
"That'll be enough of that subversive talk. I see by the file that
Riddie Playfair wasn't a casualty. Did you get to talk to her again?"
"Not exactly. The Maryland cops tried to bust into the clubhouse at
Burning Tree. That's what the shooting was about. They retired in
confusion without anybody getting hurt. Something about a mysterious
defensive shield the aliens have. The cops got a phone call later. The
spacemen said they would not use force except in self-defense. Then
they put Riddie on for a minute and she said everything was hunky-dory
and we'd be hearing from her again."
"When?" I asked.
"She didn't say. Want me to try to reach her?"
"It's worth a try. Sure."
Stew picked up the phone and I looked over the rest of Collie's UN
piece and gave it to Nancy.
Washington clicked in. Ian McEachern told me on the printer that Reb
Sylvester had gone directly to Burning Tree in case the spacemen made
a personal appearance and that Josh Holcomb had said he might have
something later in the morning. He'd had nothing to add to President
Allison's "reasonably certain" statement of yesterday. He declined to
go beyond that, resisting all attempts to get him to say officially
that the aliens had landed.
What he'd actually said, Ian told me off the record, was, "We'll jump
off that bridge when we come to it." Asked whether he meant that the
United States had doubts about the spacemen's professed peaceful
intentions, or that in view of their presumed superior technology the
Pentagon was obsolete, Josh had said he'd said all he was going to say.
So much for the White House. The State Department was "studying the
situation." The Pentagon sat behind a wall of No Comments.
"No soap on the Alien Friend," Stew said, hanging up the phone. "They
don't answer at the clubhouse and the cops say they don't know nothin'."
"We've got to get this story off the ground," I said. "All we've got
so far is Collie's UN piece. It's all right, but there's no action.
How about calling up the Mayor's office and seeing if they plan a
ticker-tape parade?"
"This is action?"