Chapter 339 Just in Case
A week later, the Edenian presidential office announced a press conference, claiming they would reveal something the entire world would definitely need to know.
The announcement attracted attention from much of the world; people were curious about what such big news would be. Especially since most of the world saw Eden as the bad guys, thanks to the constant work of the Morgans, the Chinese, and a few organizations that had joined together after suffering tremendous losses thanks to the Hephaestus IP issue and other movements on behalf of the Edenian government. Thus, speculation ran rampant all over the world; people were talking about it around the water coolers at work, on every social media site, every tv news broadcast on every channel, and it had even been discussed in many backrooms. The powerful people that moved behind the scenes were sure they had won and that Eden was about to capitulate, giving in to their every demand in order to repair their reputation on the global stage, which had sunk even lower than North Korea's had ever fallen.
Precisely at 11:58 on the day of the announcement, the press room of the Edenian palace was filled with reporters from all around the world. Cameras began rolling and livestreams began on the internet, but President Romero was yet to take the stage, leaving the viewers eagerly glued to footage of an empty podium with the Edenian presidential seal embossed on the front of it and a single microphone jutting from the top.
Not long after that, Alexander entered the room and calmly walked to the podium with a neutral expression on his face.
"Citizens of the great nation of Eden, ladies and gentlemen watching from home, and friends and enemies around the globe, good afternoon," he greeted, already firing metaphorical shots as he began his speech. "Thank you for joining me today. Although our announcement was abrupt, it was issued due to an emergency situation that requires us to inform the world. So I won't be apologizing for the short time you had to prepare your 'gotchas' for me." He paused and took a deep breath.n)-o-/v()e(/l-(b((I()n
After the short pause to gather himself, Alexander switched from firing shots to dropping bombshells. "About four months ago, the Panopticon satellite network we launched discovered an object approaching our solar system at a quarter of light speed. At first, we thought it was just a scanning artifact. Due to the distance it was observed at, that was the likeliest issue. So we checked again, but the object was still there. Then we checked again. And again. And again.... We checked until we were blue in the face, but...." He paused again, bringing his focus back to his prepared remarks.
"But no matter how many times we checked, the object still appeared on our scan. So after those continuous tests, we decided to create specialized observation devices, which we recently launched into the Lagrange points around Earth and the Sun. They are capable of a much higher resolution on a newly discovered frequency, giving us a much better view of the universe around us, or at least a ten-light-year radius of it.
"And the result of those scans is: the object exists. But at least we saw it in a higher resolution." The screen behind Alexander displayed the result of their constant data collecting over the past four months.
"Due to the importance of the discovery, we've already called for an emergency session of the UN Security council to discuss how we're going to deal with it. And just so you can verify it yourself, your space agencies, or even your amateur enthusiasts can go to our government website, where we've already announced the coordinates of the discovery so you can check it for yourself.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we hope that the UNSC will approve our emergency session request following your countries' verification of the discovery we made. Together with that, we invite everyone to download the data and verify it for yourselves..
"It is with the utmost sincerity that I say this: it is time for humanity to unite and combine our resources. If we can do that, I firmly believe that there is nothing humankind cannot overcome," he said in a grave tone, as if he knew the sheer, bloody-minded uphill battle he was about to face on the battlefield of politics.
He continued speaking for a few more minutes, explaining how they came to the conclusion that it wasn't just a planetary body in the vastness of space that coincidentally had an orbit that would pass through the solar system. He couched it in layman's terms and never forgot to mention that a more detailed and technical explanation could be found on their official website.
"I will now take questions," he concluded, resulting in all the reporters in the room raising their hands. No one wouldn't have questions after being told aliens might be coming for them.
Alexander pointed at one of the reporters, who said, "Jim Sterling, BBC News. What do you expect to come out of the UNSC meeting you've called? Shouldn't you have called a general assembly session instead of a security council session?"
"Excellent question. Resolution 377A, 'Uniting for Peace' lays out a specific method for calling an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly that will result in joint military action. According to that resolution, a general assemblythe specific emergency session can only be called for if the UN Security Council has met, voted, and failed to come to a resolution. In order for the general assembly to meet, it requires seven votes in the UNSC or a majority vote in the general assembly. So, that being the case, we're moving as quickly as we can to present the issue to the general assembly." He pointed to the next reporter to ask their questions.
"Samantha Clark, Associated Press. Why are you telling us this now, instead of later when there aren't so many things happening on the global stage?" the next reporter asked.
"I'm telling you this now because we must assume the worst-case scenario is true: that the object is a crewed, hostile vessel. Letting you know so far in advance is to give everyone time to prepare for its arrival." A collective shudder passed through the reporters in the audience and they went completely silent. Thus, he clarified, "It isn't proven that they're hostile, and it'll be even better if they aren't, but it's better to prepare for the worst while remaining optimistic and hoping for the best." Alexander looked directly into the camera.
"Just in case," he emphasized.
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