Galactic Medal of Honor

Perhaps they were an exploring expedition; perhaps they were a colonizing expedition looking for new worlds, which doesn't mean, necessarily, that they would take over a suitable world by force, if it was already supporting an intelligent life form. It is to be assumed that if they had the technical ability to cross space, they would have a more sophisticated ethic than we possess. A culture does not progress technically without also progressing ethically. If it didn't, it would probably blow itself up, as we almost did on Earth shortly after the discovery of such super-weapons as nuclear bombs."

"Come on, come on," Don protested. "I don't need a lecture on ethics."

"Very well. Each of the four Earth powers with space fleets had patrols out at all times. Of a sudden, they were no longer four space fleets but one.

And as a man they thundered in on the strangers from space. I would assume that it took the extraterrestrials by shock. Suddenly they were under attack, and under attack by the equivalent of the Japanese kamikaze fighters of the Second World War. Perhaps the Kradens attempted to defend themselves, but we aren't even sure of that. We don't really know if they were armed, and some strange tales and rumors have drifted down to us."

Don said indignantly, "Are you completely drivel-happy? They destroyed more than twenty of our spacecraft!"

The other looked at him thoughtfully. "I can't prove it, but I've often wondered whether our spacecraft didn't shoot each other down, or blow each other up, by mistake. Please remember that though they thought themselves fighting a common foe, they weren't coordinated. They entered the fight as four different space forces. Many couldn't even speak the languages of the other Earth craft involved. All was confusion, everyone shooting every which way. As we know, several, at least, of the extraterrestrials were destroyed. The rest disappeared from whence they came, it is to be supposed, in a burst of speed beyond our own ships."

"All right," Don said, "but you don't bring into this fanciful story the fact that from time to time they come back."

"I don't believe it," Thor said.

Don was glaring at him now. "Damn it," he said, "you make less sense by the minute. They're continually being spotted. Sometimes one at a time, sometimes a small group, sometimes a larger one. What do you think our Sector Scouts are out for, fun and games, or just the ride?"

"Remember the Flying Saucers?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sometimes they called them UFOs, Unidentified Flying Objects. About the middle of the last century, a regular craze went through the United States, in particular. Hundreds and even thousands of UFOs were spotted.

They were popularly assumed to be visitors from space. Some viewers went to the extreme of seeing them land and sometimes little green men, or whatever, would come out. In a few cases, crackpots would claim that they were taken aboard and flown off to Jupiter, or wherever, where, surprise, surprise, they spoke Earth languages. But to boil it down, no real proof was ever presented that these UFOs were from other worlds. They never did explain all of them, but there was never proof that they were extraterrestrial."

Don said belligerently, "Do you mean that all these patrol reports our Space Scouts send in are hysteria, or just plain lying or mistakes?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Don said, "Sometimes our spacecraft fire on these Kradens they spot."

"Maybe they fire, and at what, I wouldn't know. But I doubt if they're firing at Kradens or any other extraterrestrials. I suspect it's largely trigger-happy space pilots, at nerve's end, or possibly touched with space cafard."

Don had another protest. "You forget that some of our ships are missing. Totally missing."

"I'm not at all surprised at accidents in space. Our ships aren't that advanced as yet. The fact that a Space Scout disappears is no proof that a Kraden destroyed it."

Don said, belligerently again, "That could happen on some occasions, but remember Vico Chu and Arch Windemere? They both reported spotting Kradens, and both reported going in to attack, and both were never seen again. We didn't even find debris from their scouts."

Thor said stubbornly, " I have a theory that they spotted each other, took each other for Kradens, panicked, both fired and destroyed each other."

"Almighty Ultimate," Don said in disgust.

Thor said, "Where in the hell do we get such names as Kradens? We've never been in any kind of contact with them whatsoever."

Don snorted. "The names just sort of materialized. Nobody seems to know who dreamed up the name Kraden for their species. But their fleet was photographed during that first action and their spaceships were different sizes, so the military gave them different names, just so they'd have some sort of label to work with."