We come in peace - Folician Chronicles 8

Chapter 19 - Will you accept me as your Liraque?

Earth again

Even as the Representative was listening his government had decided much as he had, the Folician's wouldn't care who they traded with. As with many of the corrupt governments they tended to look at the rest of the world through the filter of their wants and desires. They might say they were taking a hard stand against this or that but it was mostly a bluff. They would do what was needed to remain in power and deal under the table to get what they wanted. It didn't matter if it was bribes to look the other way with bad construction, illegal logging, even child labor and the child sex trade. Drugs were another hot item which they would look the other way as long as they were getting their slice of the pie.

The El Presidente called in his senior staff, "We have the frequency to contact the dogs but how do we keep it private? Where would the satellite be? They want to trade and we would make them an offer they can't refuse. This has to be a bargaining point so they can get a better deal. Figure it out and tell me. I want to send a message sooner than later." He dismissed them to get the information he needed. The key thing was to get to the Folician's as soon as possible. The frequency they told them to use was outside the normal ranges. Any broadcasts on that wavelength would be detected unless they could do a focused transmission.

If they didn't get to them first one of the other countries might. If that happened they would lose out. Even if others started trading if they got in there first and created some contracts of exclusivity then they would lock in some trade goods. The contracts would have to be very carefully written to block others from trading a similar item. Coffee was a good example, if they could get a contract that all coffee sales had to go through them they could block all the other countries which farmed coffee.

His Generals and senior staff went to a different room to discuss their options. Even in near earth orbit space was vast and they had a feeling the satellite left was miniscule compared to anything they had. Trying to find something even three feet in diameter would be virtually impossible. They discussed it for a long time before one person came up a possibility, "They said the call had to come from the U.N., right? Wouldn't they position the satellite over the U.N.? If their science is that advanced they wouldn't need to worry about the actual position and it drifting out of orbit like our satellites do. We know how to focus a beam so that aspect isn't that difficult. What would be problematic would be knowing if they actually received the message and how long would it take to get to their planet?"

Everyone in the room looked slightly stumped for a moment before they realized that was actually a pretty good idea. All they would need to worry about would be possibly having the signal intercepted by someone else's satellite. They had a listing of as many satellites as possible but there were going to be some they weren't tracking. The tracking feed was purchased from one of the companies which monitored satellites and what they did. Stealth satellites were up there but where? That they couldn't do much about. The best they could do would be to focus the radio beam as tightly as possible, broadcast the message, refocus on a different part of the sky and repeat.

Eventually they had a plan worked out and the senior General considered taking it to the Presidente but decided not to. He ordered one of the junior Generals to take the plan and get it approved. If shit happened his head would roll. He didn't like the man anyways but hadn't figured out a way to get rid of him since he was a 'favorite' general. They waited in the conference room they had taken over until the other General came back and told them the Presidente had approved the plan. He tossed a thumb drive on the table, "That is the recording he wants sent. He recorded it personally and figures it'll work."

The senior scientist took the drive and managed not to sigh or many any sort of negative noise. The buffoon was full of himself and it was going to show but if they sent a different message and it was found out someone would die, "I'll take care of programming the broadcast to avoid as many satellites as possible." He left the room and hoped this wouldn't come back to haunt him. It might be a good idea to consider getting out of town sooner than later. He just had a bad feeling about this which he couldn't shake.