The attack on the homeworld of the United Nations of Earth was sudden, unexpected, and suicidal.
The three large warships came out of hyperspace, driving inward toward the planet with ion blasters firing at full power toward the planetary defense platforms and the orbiting Star Fleet Defense Force warships. The platforms and ships, caught by surprise, took less than a minute to begin returning fire as the attackers altered their directions, angling towards the cluster of lights spread across the grey planetary surface that marked the capital city of New York and as they came within range they added salvos of missiles to their attack.
The attack was successfully repelled. The defense platforms and their anti-ballistic missile defense systems easily picked off the incoming missiles while the warships targeted the attacking ships themselves, blasting them into rubble and making sure that any fragments entering the atmosphere were too small to survive the journey. Within half an hour of the attack, it was over.
The threat had abated, Commander Zhang thought grimly as he strode down the central corridor toward the UN Security Council where the representatives and their aides were assembling after making their way back from the emergency bunkers.
The Senate had been in full session which meant nearly all of Earth's top-level politicians had been in the offices, corridors, and meeting rooms when the alarm sounded. The shelters deep beneath the UN assembly building were reasonably large and marginally comfortable, but it had been decades since the last direct attack on Earth by the Akkadian Empire during those three bloody wars and he doubted any of the current government officials had ever even been down there.
"What I want to know," Ro Khanna the war-hungry speaker for North America spoke up after Zhang had finished his report, "Who the aliens are who dared think they could get away with an attack against us. We want their identity, Commander."
"I'm afraid I can't give you one, Speaker," Zhang said. "At least not yet."
"Why not?" the Speaker demanded. "You have starship debris, don't you? You have bodies and weapons profiles. Surely a morsel of data can be gleaned from all that."
"Earth has been attacked," Liu Ye the Speaker for South-East Asia cut in as if the others might somehow have missed that fact. "We need to know who to punish for such arrogance."
The threat of war and a presence of major threats to Earth had usually drawn the politicians of all regions into a unity that superseded the usual political maneuvering. It seemed that today's attack had sparked such a response.
In the case of North America led by Washington and Southeast Asia led by Beijing, in particular, those regions were in the midst of a particularly tangled campaign with a newly opened mining station on Luminos as the prize, and the American was clearly annoyed at having had some of his spotlight stolen by his chief rival. "More than that," he added, his glare daring Liu Ye to interrupt again, "We need assurances that Star Fleet has the resources to defend Earth against further action by these unidentified enemies."
The meaningless politicking went on that way for another hour, with each of the Nine Permanent Members of the UN Security Council—and many of the smaller nations who had aspirations of joining that elite group—making sure to get their outrage and determination on the Senate record.
It was, for the most part, a waste of Zhang's time. Fortunately, extensive experience in the military had taught him how to listen to politicians with only half his mind while giving the appearance that they had his full attention with periodic head nods and grunts.
The Speakers and representatives wanted to know who had attacked Earth but they were looking in the wrong direction.
The more interesting question was not who, but why.
No one attacked Earth; the homeworld of one of the most powerful nations in the galactic federation for the fun of it. That went double for an attack that cost three major warships without providing any obvious strategic gain. Either the attacker had misjudged badly, or else he'd achieved a more subtle goal.
What could such a goal look like?
The majority of the UN Assembly clearly assumed the attack had been a prelude to a more sustained campaign, and once they finished their posturing they would undoubtedly start urging Star Fleet to pull its ships inward for the protection of the major systems. More than that, they would probably insist that the Outer Patrol Fleet withdraws from the border systems to augment them.
Was that the goal? To keep Star Fleet looking inward and not outward? In which case, bowing to the Senator's demands for security would play directly into the enemy's plans. On the other hand, if the senators were right about this being the start of a full-fledged campaign, leaving the Outer Patrol Fleet out in the chaos could be an equally fatal move. Either way, if they guessed wrong, it would be too late to correct the error by the time they knew the truth.
But as Commander Zhang weighed the possibilities, it occurred to him that there was one other possibility. Perhaps the attack wasn't meant to draw the UN's attention from something that was about to happen but to distract it from something that had already happened.
And that possibility, at least, he could look into right now. Stealthily, he keyed a search order into his tablet midway through the council session and as he continued to make his soothing noises to the Senators, he had the answer.
Maybe.